Christmas cookies

Ingredients

• 100 g muscovado sugar
• 150 g butter
• 1 large egg (preferably free-range)
• 350 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 3 tsp mixed spice
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 pack Foxes Glacier Fruits, Jolly Ranchers or other colourful boiled lollies

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C (fan-forced 160 ˚C) and line two baking tray with parchment paper.
2. In a stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar. Add in the egg and beat through.
3. Mix through the flour, baking powder, salt, mixed spice and vanilla extract until you have a biscuit dough consistency.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and roll out to about 1 cm in thickness.
5. Cut out biscuit shapes, place on the lined baking tray, then using a smaller cutter or a small knife cut out the centre of each cookie, arranging these around the tray as well.
6. Crush the sweets using a rolling pin (they don’t need to be very fine pieces) and arrange them into the centre holes of the cookies.
7. Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes. If using as decorations, as soon as they come out of the oven, using a straw or end of a piping nozzle, poke out a hole at the top of each cookie. Allow to cool on a wire rack.
8. String through some ribbon and hang on the tree, or package as gifts.