Easter egg cookies

Ingredients

• 200g salted butter, at room temperature
• 200g golden caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
• 1 medium free range egg
• 375g plain flour
• 250g royal icing sugar

Equipment

• Baking trays, lined with parchment
• Cookie cutters, egg shaped or fluted round, 10cm and 4cm
• Piping bag

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Using a standing mixer, an electric hand beater or by hand in a bowl with a wooden spoon, cream the butter, sugar and vanilla paste until just combined. Gently beat in the egg until all combined. Tip in the flour and mix up until the dough forms. Dust the work surface with additional flour and roll out to the thickness of 4-5mm, making sure to turn the dough a quarter turn every so often and adding extra dusting flour as needed.

Cut out as many large egg shapes as you can, then cut out the smaller eggs from the centre of each. Reroll the excess once more, cut out and place all the cookies on the baking trays and bake for approx. 12-15 mins, until golden and firm to the touch.

To check whether they’re done, press your finger onto a biscuit—if the dough springs straight back, they are cooked; if an indentation is left they are a little soft, so bake until completely crisp. Leave to cool on the tray or on a wire rack.

To decorate, mix up the royal icing sugar in a bowl with 3-4 tsp water to soft peak consistency. The consistency is right when you lift up or drag a spoon through the mix and the trail disappears between 5-10 secs.

For the neatest finish, place into a piping bag and pipe a frilly pattern around the outer edge, then around the middle edge. Fill in the space between with a flooding of icing. (If you don’t have a piping bag or want a quicker finish you can dip the eggs topside into the bowl to cover the top roughly.) Decorate with your choice of crystallised flowers.

Leave to dry fully on a wire rack, then wrap for gifts or keep in an airtight container or food bag for up to 2 weeks.