Goodness Me Basic Cookie Cutter Cookies

These are a fantastic basic cookie recipe to use with cookie cutters.

It’s a great recipe for getting children involved in the kitchen. It can be a bit tricky to master the icing at first but have fun, you can always eat the ones that don’t quite turn out how you imagined!

Free From: Gluten, Wheat, Soy, Sesame, Potato Flour/Starch & Nut flours.

Ingredients: 
75g (2.7oz) butter (softened)
½ cup (100g) castor sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
1 egg
1½ cups (225g) Baking Blend*
½ teaspoon baking powder

Outline Icing:
1 egg white
Icing Sugar (as much as needed)
Food colouring & flavouring as desired

Flood Icing:
1¼ cups (190g) icing sugar
1 Tablespoon just boiled hot water
Food colouring & flavouring as desired

Extra Baking Blend to dust the rolling surface

Method:

  1. In a bowl beat together the butter and sugar, using an electric beater on high speed, until creamy and pale.
  2. Add the vanilla and egg. Beat again.
  3. Add in the Baking Blend and baking powder and mix until well combined. This will make a soft (rather than firm) dough.
  4. Using floured hands shape dough into a log, wrap with cling film and put in the fridge for 20 minutes.
  5. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) fan bake. Cover a baking sheet(s) with baking paper. Set aside.
  6. Lightly dust the working surface with flour then remove dough from fridge and allow to warm up only until you are able to roll it out without cracking.
  7. Divide the log into six portions and roll out one portion at a time with a flour dusted rolling pin until 6 – 8mm (¼”)  thick.
  8. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and place on the baking sheet.
  9. Repeat until all the dough has been used. Dust the surface again as needed to prevent dough from sticking.
  10. In very hot weather, put cookies in the refrigerator to rest for 30 minutes before baking.
  11. Bake at 180°C (350°F) fan bake for 10 – 12 minutes.
  12. Remove from oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes on the baking tray.
  13. Remove to cake rack to finish cooling. When completely cold they are ready to ice.
  14. To ice first prepare outline icing by mixing a small amount of the egg white with icing sugar, colour and flavour until the icing is stiff enough for a line dribbled off the bottom of the spoon to take a few seconds to disappear back into the bowl. This is really trial and error; you will know when you have it right. Put icing in a piping bag or small bottle and outline your cookies with a solid line of icing (this will hold the flood icing on the cookie).
  15. Leave until the icing is set.
  16. Then mix up your flood icing, again colouring and flavouring as desired. It should be runny enough that it will “flood” the cookie when you put it on, but not too runny. Apply using a spoon/piping bag/small bottle. Use a toothpick to drag/encourage the icing into the corners.
  17. When dry apply any further icing detail on top of the cookies using the boarder icing mixture. If you want to “draw” a fine line make up a tiny piping bag from baking paper (a quick Google will give instructions for baking paper piping bags).
  18. These cookies are best eaten within a few days as the icing does tend to soften them.

Cook’s Tip:
These cookies are quite plain so it’s a good idea to add a flavour (like almond) to the icing.

Variations:
Goodness Me Gluten Free Valentines Day CookiesValentines Day Chocolate Cookies: Follow the recipe above adding in 1 teaspoon of cocoa powder when you mix in the Baking Blend. Or for a very chocolatey flavour when you measure out the Baking Blend remove 1 Tablespoon of Blend and replace with 1 Tablespoon of cocoa powder. For icing the cookies in the photo we used the outline icing recipe above coloured red. Happy Valentines Day!

*Recipe p.8 of Goodness Me it’s Gluten Free Cookbook or the Gluten Free Cooking Starter Guide.