The Red Deer: piping

There is only 29 days left until Christmas! Can you believe it? So what are your plans this year?

I plan to put up the Christmas tree and decorations on the 1st of December. I am also making some Christmas stockings for everyone in the family - even the cats. We will be having Christmas lunch with my mother and sister at our place, with simple food and of course dessert. The gifts this year are going to be simple - homemade gifts baked with love, some new toys for the little one and some other small bits and bobs.

Enough about that. Lets talk about these Iced Lemon Cookies. I had trouble with these cookies - again the dough would not come together so I had to slightly alter the recipe. Then came the royal icing piping. Well you'll see how that turned out. And finally the cookies were just a bit bleh - not very lemony and not that sweet. So not my favourite, I probably won't make them again.

Iced Lemon Cookies (from Better Homes and Gardens - December 2007)
Makes 30 small cookies (or 16 large cookies)

2 cups plain flour
1/2 cup almond meal
1/2 cup caster sugar
pinch of salt
125g butter, chilled, chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp lemon essence
extra flour, for kneading

Put flour, almond meal, sugar and salt in a food processor and process for 30 seconds. Add butter and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add egg and lemon essence and process until mixture forms into a ball (I needed to add another half an egg before my dough would come together).
Knead dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth. Pat dough into a disc, put into a plastic bag and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 160C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper. Roll out dough between 2 sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick. Use a Christmas cutter to cut out shapes. Put shapes on oven trays. Bake for 12 minutes or until cooked through. Leave on trays for 5 minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
Ice with royal icing (recipe below).