Iced mitten sugar cookies

Whisk together the brown sugar and butter until creamy. Add the cream cheese and flour and mix to a soft dough. Wrap the dough in clingfilm/ plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

On a flour-dusted surface, roll out the dough to 5mm/1/4 inch thickness and cutout 10 mitten shape cookies. Carefully transfer the cookies to the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the oven until the cookies turn light golden brown. As soon as you remove the cookies from the oven, use the icing nozzle/tip to stamp out a hole in each cookie. Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

To decorate, place one-third of the icing/confectioners' sugar in a bowl and mix with a few teaspoons of cold water to make a stiff, thick icing. Spoon the icing into a piping/pastry bag and pipe a line as close to the edge of the cookie as possible. Leave the outline to dry for a few minutes before flooding the cookies. To do this, mix the remaining icing/confectioners' sugar with a few tablespoons of water to make a runny icing. Spread enough icing onto the cookie so that it looks covered, but not so much that it overflows. Use a round-bladed knife to guide the icing to flood any gaps. While the icing is still wet, sprinkle the coconut across the bottom of each to make a fluffy cuff. Leave to set.

Put the remaining stiff icing in the piping bag to pipe knitted patterns onto each of the mittens. Leave the icing to set before threading onto the string/twine and knotting them in pairs. The cookies will store for up to 5 days in an airtight container. Store them flat, in single layers, between sheets of baking parchment.