I’m not much of a christmassy person, but every year I’m really looking forward to baking cookies.

However, I only bake simple german shortcrust cookies. You can be so creative with them and they are so easy to make.

I make a huge amount of basic dough, divide it into parts, and spice them up differently, for example with orange zest, vanilla, cocoa or ginger. This way I get many flavors with one dough.

The basic 1-2-3 recipe:

• 1 part sugar
• 2 parts cold butter (in cubes)
• 3 parts flour
• 1 or more eggs (1 egg for every 200g or 7 oz of butter)
• flavor of your choice (for the dark ones I always replace some of the flour with cocoa so they won’t get too dry)

Put all ingredients in a large bowl and knead with your hands until you have a smooth dough.

Then divide it in parts and knead in the flavorings.

Let the dough cool in the fridge (or outside if you live in a cold climate) for at least 1 hour before you start making the cookies. If the dough is too warm, the cookies won’t stay in shape.

Bake at about 200 °C or 392 °F until lightly golden at the edges. Keep checking, they burn easily!

After letting them cool a few minutes, decorate them any way you like.

Be sure to test frequently if they turned out right ; ) !

Vanilla Snowflakes

Cinnamon Snowflakes

Vanilla Clouds with white chocolate

Cocoa Horse

Caramel-Orange-white Chocolate Stars

Iced Snowflakes with Arrak flavor