Forest Animal Cookies

Ingredients

185 g butter

1 cup castor sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/2 cup flour 

1 egg

1 egg yolk

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 c.

Cut butter into cubes. Then in a electric mixer mix the cool cubed butter, sugar and vanilla until smooth.

Add the flour, egg and egg yolk and process until the mixture forms a soft dough

Take the dough out of the processor and knead slightly bringing it together in ball and wrap it in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Dough ready for Fridge	Rolled out pastry and cutter placed on top	Acorn cutter place on pastry in the middle

Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface about ½ cm / 5mm thick. Press the cookie cutters on to the dough. After you place the top cutter, put in the second part to get the outline of the animal. The smaller cutter can be placed on the stomach area to cut out a hole to either put in a smartie or jam or in my case I put in a half a piece of gummy bear.

the three cutters	placed on a piece of pastry	cookies ready for fridge

Place the dough on a baking sheet that has been lined with baking paper or a silicone mat

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until golden brown.

Ready for baking	Baked cookies	kept to cool

Remove the biscuits carefully from the baking tray and place them on a wire rack to cool, if not they tend to overcook and turn brown.

NB: You can make the cookie a double layer by either adding jam or chocolate spread and pasting them together. This is only half the pastry dough. I kept the balance in the freezer so when ever the grandkids turn up they can roll out their own cookies and I can bake it for them!

These cookie cutters were purchased from Betty Bossi, Switzerland