{Reindeer Cookies - Done!}

I had decided a wee while ago that I'd make some reindeer cookies for my son to take for his friends at nursery as a little Christmas treat.

Today we did a trial run of the biscuits and had great fun.

I used a recipe for Sugar Cookies from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook (thanks Kath for the tip!) and I managed to find the instructions online here.

Preheat oven to 170 deg C.

Put 200g unsalted butter (I used Lurpak spreadable), 280g caster sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract into a mixer (I used my Magimix) and cream until light and fluffy. Add one egg (I used a large egg as the recipe I had didn't state what size to use) and mix again, making sure to scrap down the sides of the mixer bowl a few times.

Add 400g plain flour, pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar and mix again, but don't overmix. The dough should be light, soft and easy to handle.

Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the dough with a rolling pin.

Cut out shapes of your choice... we used a heart cutter as it was the closest thing I had to the shape of a reindeer head!

Arrange the cookies on a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper. I added pretzels for antlers and raisins for eyes.

Bake for approximately 10 minutes in your preheated oven until the cookies are very light golden on the outer edge but paler in the middle.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool (I don't have a wire baking rack yet, but it's on my Christmas list!).

I then added some red icing (from a tube at the supermarket) and stuck onto this a red sugar pearls which I had in my baking supplies. This became Rudolf's red nose. I also added a dot of white to the raisin to make the eye look a bit better (not sure it worked, but it was the best I could do with my limited baking stuff!). 

 End result - some delicious biscuits* that hopefully look like little Rudolph's.

I've not attempted to package any yet in their individual little bags - hubby is going to take these ones to his work tomorrow and in a week or so we'll do the proper batch for taking into nursery.

*In my opinion they were very yummy... I've had 3 already with a nice hot mug of tea!!