Basic Vanilla Biscuits

Creating these simple vanilla biscuits can be a fun family activity. When my children were growing up, they used to say that I "never bought food, just ingredients", the same was true of biscuits too

I've used an 8cm snowman cutter here as these are for my Grandson's Christmas party, but you can use any shaped cutter you wish. I also managed to add a few gingerbread people shapes as the dough got smaller.

This mix will make over 40 biscuits using the snowman shape. I purchased the cutters from Sainsbury's earlier this month and this cutter is the smallest of the three.

You will need:

• 175g of softened, unsalted butter
• 200g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 400g plain flour (plus extra for rolling)
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract *
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• Rolling pin
• Baking parchment
• Baking tray
• Wire cooling rack

How to:

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy 
2. Beat in the eggs and vanilla extract*
3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder
4. Combine the mixture from both bowl and mix together. If the mix is too sticky, add a little more flour.
5. Separate the mix into two, sprinkle a little flour onto the two portions and place in cling film or plastic bag, then into the refrigerator for about an hour.
6. Turn the oven onto Gas #4 then have a little chill-time yourself.
7. Cover your baking tray with parchment paper, or grease the tray
8. Remove dough from refrigerator, dust your work surface with a little flour and dust the top of your dough.
9. Roll out to 5mm thickness and cut.
10. Place, a little distance apart from the next biscuit onto your baking tray.
11. Bake in the centre of the oven for 8 - 12 minutes. By this time, they should just start to go golden brown on the edges. If they haven't, leave them in the oven and check regularly until they do.
12. Once cooked, turn out onto a cooling rack.
13. Once cooled, you can decorate them as desired or leave as they are.

* You can change the flavour to suit your needs, here are some suggestions:

• Use lemon extract with some zest
• Add some edible lavender to the mix