Monday 15 December 2008

Gold-Dust Cookies

These gold-dust cookies come courtesy of Nigella Lawson's Christmas Cookbook . I made them over the weekend to take down to my sister’s house and they went down a treat. I used vanilla extract instead of ginger, only because it is a more suited flavour for kids and one I also prefer. I am a sucker for glitter and stars and when I came across this recipe in the book I was sold. These would be beautiful as a gift or offered up after dinner with coffee. I’m definitely going to be making them again over this festive season and any excuse to use my edible glitters is my idea of fun.

Gold-Dust Cookies

Makes about 30, depending on size

Ingredients
90g soft butter
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon ground ginger (or vanilla extract)
200g plain flour, plus more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon fine salt
Edible gold dust or glitter flakes

Preheat the oven to 180oC/gas mark 4 and line a baking sheet or two with baking parchment or Bake-O-Glide.

Cream the butter and sugar together until whipped soft and pale, then beat in the egg, followed by the ginger (or vanilla), flour, baking powder and salt and continue mixing until it all comes together to make a soft dough.

Form into 2 discs, wrap each one in clingfilm and let it rest in the fridge for 20-30 minutes.

Sprinkle a suitable surface with flour, place a disc of dough on it and sprinkle a little more flour on top. Then roll out to a thickness of about 5mm.

Cut into shapes, dipping the cutter into flour as you go, and place the biscuits a little apart on the lined baking sheet/s. Keep the scraps of the first disc, to mix with the scraps of the second and roll and cut, re-roll and cut, until you’ve used up the mixture. This is wonderfully pliable dough, which makes it an unstressful joy to work with.

Bake in the oven for 18-12 minutes: this depends on their shape, how many sheets are in the oven at the same time, and whether on the upper or lower shelf, though you can swap them around after 5 minutes. When they’re ready, expect them to be tinged a pronounced pale gold around the edges; they’ll be softish still in the middle, but will harden on cooling.

Take the sheets out of the oven, remove the cookies, with a flat, preferably flexible, spatula to a wire rack and leave to cool.

Using a small (unused) paintbrush or eyeshadow brush, dip in the edible gold dust or glitter flakes, and give each cookies its gilded coating.

17 comments:

Maggie said...

I too love lots and lots of glitter at this time of year - whilst we can get away with it. The cookies look really pretty.

Tina Butler said...

Glitter Glitter you can never have to much. Those cookies look awesome. Simple little stars.

Anne said...

Cookies look gorgeous, love the sparkle on top!

Finla said...

I love that glitter in the cookies and they do look so festive and beautiful.
If you like you can send this to susan of Foodblogga for her cookie event, she will love to have the glittter cookie.
http://foodblogga.blogspot.com/2008/11/announcing-eat-christmas-cookies-season.html

Maria said...

I love the gold dust. Extra special cookies!!

Bea Roque said...

Están preciosas estas galletitas!!! que bonitas con el luster dust, nunca lo he utilizado ( a ver si me atrevo).. estoy esperando un ejemplar autografiado del libro de Nigella, que me ha conseguido una buena amiga de Londres...a ver si me llega antes de Navidad!! jajaj

Un beso muy fuerte. Bea

Thinking About Food said...

Maria, those cookies look pretty as a picture in all their sparkly loveliness!!!:)

Reeni said...

Those are beautiful! Perfect for this time of year. I love them!

Sally said...

So simple, yet soooooooo pretty. Like the hit of using a make-up brush to apply the glitter.
Twinkle twinkle little star!

Kelly-Jane said...

I'm a glitter-y one too :)

Thay look just perfect, well done Maria.

Maria♥ said...

Thanks for all the wonderful comments.

Maria
x

Nickki said...

I love a lot of glitter myself, especially at this time of year. I'm making these cookies at the weekend, I have my edible gold glitter at the ready :)

Anonymous said...

Those look absolutely wonderful - love the glitter effect!

Hayley said...

Ow I love these! : ) xxx

Jo said...

Hi Maria, I stumbled across your blog looking for christmassy cookies. I was wondering where you buy the glitter from? Thanks, Jo

Reanna-banana said...

theyre amazing! where can i get the gold dust from? xx

Maria♥ said...

I purchased my gold glitter dust from an online specialist shop:

http://www.blueribbons.co.uk/

Another good online source is:

http://www.cakescookiesandcraftsshop.co.uk/

Hope this helps.

Maria
x