Christmas Jumper Cookies

Decorating cookies is so much fun, and is a perfect way to get the kids involved in some festive baking activities. We love these fun, colourful Christmas jumper cookies by Dr. Oetker, which can be customised to match your favourite jumper!

Christmas Jumper Cookies

Preparation time: 120 minutes Makes: 9 Cookies:

• 150 g Unsalted Butter (5oz, very soft)
• 150 g Caster Sugar (5oz)
• 10 ml Dr. Oetker Madagascan Vanilla Extract (2 tsp)
• 250 g Plain Flour (9oz)
• 12 ½ ml Ground Ginger (2 1/2 tsp)
• 12 ½ g Mixed Spice (2 1/2 tsp, ground mixed spice)
• Oetker Bicarbonate of Soda Sachets (1 3/4 tsp)

To decorate:

• 10 g Icing Sugar (To dust)
• Oetker Coloured Ready to Roll Regal-Ice (100g Green, Blue and Red)
• 20 ml Honey (4 tsp, clear runny honey)
• 40 g Dr. Oetker Fine Cooks’ Milk Chocolate (1 ½ oz)
• 15 g Dr. Oetker Ready Rolled Marzipan (1/2 oz)
• Oetker White Designer Icing
• Oetker Bright Writing Icing

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan oven, 350˚F, Gas 4). Line 2 large baking trays with baking parchment. Put the butter and caster sugar in a bowl and beat until well blended and creamy. Stir in the Vanilla Extract.
2. Sieve the flour, Bicarbonate of Soda and spices on top. Carefully combine to make a mixture that resembles a crumble topping and using your hands, bring the mixture together to form a firm dough. Turn on to a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth and pliable.
3. Roll out the dough to a thickness of ½ cm (¼ inch). Using an approx. 10cm (4inch) wide jumper shaped cookie cutter, cut out 9 shapes, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Arrange on the trays and prick with a fork. Chill for 30 minutes.
4. Bake the cookies for about 20 minutes until firm and lightly golden round the edges. Cool for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. To decorate, dust the work surface lightly with icing sugar and knead each Regal Ice colour in turn until smooth and pliable. Roll out each coloured icing thinly. Using the same cutter, cut out 3 jumpers from each colour, re-rolling as necessary. Reserve the red icing trimmings.
6. Gently roll each icing jumper a little more to make it slightly larger to better fit the top of the cookies. Brush the cookie tops with honey and stick the icing jumpers on top. Set aside - if your cookies are for a gift, see note at end of recipe.
7. Put the Milk Chocolate in a small heatproof bowl and place on top of a saucepan of barely simmering water. Leave to melt, then remove from the water and leave to cool for 10 minutes. Spoon all but a teaspoonful of the chocolate into a small uncut piping bag. Keep the remaining chocolate over hot water to keep it melted.
8. Working on one jumper at a time, snip a thin piece from the point of the piping bag using scissors and pipe a reindeer head-shaped pool of chocolate in the middle of each cookie. Leave in a cool place to set for about 15 minutes.
9. Meanwhile, cut the Marzipan into 9 equal small portions. Roll each into a thin sausage approx. 4cm (1 ¾ inch) long. Cut off 2 tiny portions from each to make eyes and then cut the marzipan lengths in half. Cut small slashes in each of the lengths using a small sharp knife, opening out the slashes to make spikey antlers.
10. Once the chocolate heads have set, secure the marzipan antlers on the cookies using a little water. Secure the reserved marzipan "eyes" in the same way. Form the reserved red Ready to Roll icing into 9 small noses and secure in place as above. Use the remaining melted chocolate to paint or pipe the eye detail on the icing.
11. Using the star nozzle on the Designer Icing tube, pipe the jumper trim on the neck, cuffs and hem, and pipe small stars to resemble snowflakes. Use the Writing Icing colours to add a contrasting coloured trim to the jumpers.
12. As a finishing touch, pipe small dots using the plain nozzle on the Designer Icing tube to give a snowy effect. Leave your cookies for a few minutes to dry, and then your cookies will be ready to serve and enjoy.

For gifting: Once you have iced your cookies with the coloured Ready to Roll icing, leave them on a wire rack, lightly covered with greaseproof paper overnight, in a cool, dry place, so that the icing dries out a little. After decorating, leave them in the same way for at least 2 hours to dry the icing decoration before you pack them. Best packed between layers of clean tissue paper or baking parchment to save damage.