advent numbered cookies
Vanilla shortbread
225 g/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
250 g/2 cups plain/all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
75 g/½ cup icing/confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate shortbread
225 g/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
200 g/1⅔ cups plain/all-purpose flour
50 g/⅓ cup cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
75 g/½ cup icing/confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
assorted cookie cutters, eg round, square and oval
numbered cookie cutters
1–2 baking sheets, lined with baking parchment
makes about 24
1 To make the vanilla shortbread, beat the butter in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon until smooth and very soft. Meanwhile, sift together the flour and salt.
2 Add the icing/confectioners’ sugar to the creamed butter and continue mixing until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and mix again. Add the sifted flour and salt and mix until it starts to come together into a dough.
3 To knead the dough, first sprinkle a little flour on a clean work surface. Then shape the dough into a ball and push on it and press it onto the work surface, turning it round often. Do this for a minute, then flatten into a disc, cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap and chill until needed.
4 To make the chocolate shortbread, follow steps 1–3 above, but add the cocoa powder to the flour and salt.
5 Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.
6 Sprinkle more flour on the work surface. Using a rolling pin, roll out the vanilla and chocolate dough (separately) to a thickness of 2–3 mm/⅛ inch and stamp out 24 shapes using the assorted cookie cutters. Arrange on the prepared baking sheets. Using the numbered cutters, stamp out numbers 1–24 and stick to each larger cookie with a dab of cold water.
7 Leave the cookies to chill in the fridge for 10 minutes.
8 Ask an adult to help you put one baking sheet on the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Bake for about 12 minutes, or until firm and starting to go crisp at the edges. Repeat with the second sheet of cookies.
9 Ask an adult to help you remove the cookies from the oven and leave to cool on the baking sheets.
sunflower oil, for frying
popcorn kernels
needle and assorted brightly coloured threads
1 Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a large saucepan. Ask an adult to help you put it over medium-high heat. Add enough popcorn to cover the base of the pan, cover tightly with a lid and wait for the popping to start.
2 Holding the pan and lid firmly with oven gloves, give the pan a good shake from time to time.
3 When the popping stops, then all the kernels have popped and you can safely take off the lid and remove the pan from the heat. Tip the popcorn into a large bowl and leave to cool.
4 Thread the needle with a long piece of the coloured thread and tie a big, double knot at the end. One by one, push a piece of popcorn onto the thread until you have a long garland. Repeat using different-coloured threads.
5 Arrange the popcorn garlands on the Christmas tree or anywhere that you might need some edible decorations!
While you’ve got some popcorn on the go, why not make these perfect party nibbles?! They take just moments to make.
popcorn marshmallow clusters
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
125 g/2 cups mini-marshmallows
75–100 g/3½-4 cups popped popcorn
75 g/½ cup pecan pieces
75 g/½ cup dried cranberries
edible silver balls
a baking sheet, lined with baking parchment
makes loads!
1 Put the butter in a large saucepan. Ask an adult to help you put it over medium heat. Add the marshmallows and give them a good stir. Once they start to melt, add the popcorn, pecans and cranberries. Stir constantly until the marshmallows melt and the mixture starts to clump together.
2 Carefully tip the mixture out of the pan and onto the prepared baking sheet. Scatter over some edible silver balls.
3 Once the mixture is cool enough to handle, break off clusters and serve in baskets or piled up on plates.
candy trees
assorted festive candies
roll of clear cellophane or cellophane bags
brightly coloured ribbons
silver spray-painted branches and twigs
1 Tip all the sweets into a large bowl and mix them up!
2 Ask an adult to help you cut large squares from the cellophane. You don’t need to do this if you have cellophane bags already. Arrange a handful of sweets in the middle of each square. Gather up the cellophane to make a pouch and tie with pretty festive ribbons, leaving enough ribbon to make a loop.
3 Arrange the silver branches and twigs in a sturdy vase. Hang the parcels on the tree.
Frosted fruit looks wonderfully festive, piled high on a glass serving dish and given pride of place on the dinner table – and it tastes delicious, too. Use a selection of green and red grapes, blueberries and cranberries. In the summer months you could try frosting strands of jewel-like redcurrants.
frosted fruit
1 egg white or 2 teaspoons dried egg white mixed with 2 tablespoons warm water
1 bunch of green grapes
1 bunch of red grapes
a handful of cranberries
a handful of blueberries
caster/superfine sugar, for sprinkling
a baking sheet, lined with baking parchment
makes a big plateful
1 Put the egg white or egg white powder and warm water in a large bowl and whisk with a balloon whisk until foamy. Using a pastry brush, brush the egg white over the fruit – try to cover them evenly and completely.
2 Hold the bunches of grapes, one at a time, above the prepared baking sheet and sprinkle sugar over the grapes so that you cover the egg white completely.
3 Lightly brush the cranberries and blueberries with egg white and coat these in sugar too.
4 Leave the fruit to dry on the parchment for at least a couple of hours until the sugar has hardened and become crisp.
5 Arrange the fruit on a platter.
No two snowflakes are the same and these snowflake cookies are no exception. Look out for sets of fancy snowflake cookie cutters in all shapes and sizes and little pots of sparkly edible sprinkles to decorate your cookies with.
snowflake cookies
225 g/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
225 g/1 cup caster/granulated sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
450 g/3½ cups plain/all-purpose flour
Glacé Icing (page 76)
edible white glitter and silver balls
assorted snowflake-shaped cookie cutters
2 baking sheets, lined with baking parchment
makes about 12
1 Put the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or use a large bowl and an electric whisk). Ask an adult to help you cream them until pale and fluffy. Add the beaten egg, vanilla extract and salt and mix again.
2 Gradually add the flour and mix until incorporated and smooth. Tip the dough out onto the work surface, flatten into a disc, cover with clingfilm/plastic wrap and chill for a couple of hours until firm.
3 Sprinkle a little flour on a clean work surface. Roll out the dough to a thickness of about
5 mm/⅛ inch. Stamp out shapes with the cutters and arrange on the prepared baking sheets. Gather up any scraps of cookie dough,
knead very lightly to bring together into a ball and roll out again to stamp out more cookies. Chill in the fridge for a further 15 minutes.
4 Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.
5 Ask an adult to help you put the baking sheets on the middle shelf of the preheated oven. Bake for about 10–12 minutes until pale golden and firm to the touch.
6 Ask an adult to help you remove the sheets from the oven. Leave the cookies to cool on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
7 Make a piping bag as described on page 84. Pipe Glacé Icing onto the cookies and dust with glitter. Decorate with silver balls.
