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For the plain dough

  • 225g (8oz) soft butter or margarine
  • 140g (5oz) caster sugar
  • 280g (10oz) plain flour
  • 1 egg yolk
  • pinch of salt
  • 2tsp vanilla extract, or the juice and rind of 1 lemon
  • Optional extras -- be creative!
  • (Add about 50g of extra ingredients)
  • chopped mixed peel
  • finely chopped dried fruit
  • chocolate chips or grated chocolate
  • sugar cake decorations, eg hundreds and thousands
  • chopped or ground nuts
  • tiny "mini-mini" marshmallows

    Method

    • step 1

      Cream the butter and sugar together until they're light and fluffy.
    • step 2

      Add the egg yolk and mix well. Then add the flour and salt, and vanilla extract or lemon.
    • step 3

      Now comes the fun part! Add about 50g of whatever other ingredients you like! Good combinations to try are dark chocolate and orange, white chocolate and lemon, and date and pecan. Hundreds and thousands mixed into the dough are really colourful and great for kids!
    • step 4

      Mix the flour and your added extras until it all comes together to form a sticky cookie dough.
    • step 5

      Put the dough onto a floured work surface, and roll into a thick sausage shape. The size of the sausage depends how big you want your cookies: make it long and thin to get the most out, but they'll be smaller.
    • step 6

      Wrap the sausage of cookie dough in clingfilm and leave in the freezer for at least 1 hour. While it's in there, preheat the oven to 190C (375F/Gas mark 6).
    • step 7

      Take the sausage of cookie dough out of the freezer: it should be firmer and easier to cut. Use a sharp knife to slice it, as thick as you like, and put the cookie slices onto a baking sheet, spaced quite far apart. If you need to bake them in more than one batch, wrap the excess dough and put it back into the freezer so it doesn't go soft.
    • step 8

      Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes, then leave to cool. They're great plain, but you can spread each one with a teaspoon of coloured or flavoured icing.
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    Comments, questions and tips (13)

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    Overall rating

    A star rating of 4.3 out of 5.11 ratings

    stomato367822

    I’ve enjoyed and returned to this recipe often. I don’t possess a freezer, so just chilled the dough for a while in my fridge. I also substituted cling film with baking parchment. I put the dough onto a sheet of parchment then rolled it up, squeezing and rolling the dough into a stout sausage shape…

    louisegreen18

    Quite possibly the driest cookies known to man. There is nothing cookie-like about these cookies that come from this recipe, these are biscuits. Avoid if you want chewy, gloopy cookies.

    Dawn Callister avatar

    Dawn Callister

    question

    Is this ok made before you need it and frozen?

    currylover2019

    A star rating of 5 out of 5.

    My kids love this recipe! And they taste beautifully buttery.

    Jan Waugh avatar

    Jan Waugh

    question

    How many does this dough make for round biscuits I've forgot

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