Marble Monogram Cookies

In need of some sugar and spice? Treat yo’self to these aromatic gingerbread-esque cookies. They’re quick and easy to make, and are great as homemade, personalised gifts this winter. Will you save these as late-night snacks with a cup of tea, or gift them to a friend with pumpkin spice withdrawal symptoms?

Ingredients (makes about 20 discs):

• 175g plain flour (plus extra to roll)
  
• 50g butter
• 2 tsp ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 85g light brown soft sugar
• 2 tbsp golden syrup or honey
• 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 2 colours of fondant
• icing sugar to roll
• gold piping gel
• glitter to decorate

Method:

• Pre-heat oven to 180°C 
• Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, ginger, cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and sugar) in a large mixing bowl
• Add the wet ingredients (golden syrup or honey, vanilla essence and egg) to the mixture and combine well
• Soften the butter in the microwave and use your finger tips to rub the butter into the mixture as best as you can – you’re aiming for a squishy crumb-like consistency
• Use your hands to gather the crumbs in the mixing bowl and pack together to form a dough
• Dust a surface and rolling pin with flour, then roll the dough out to the thickness of a £1 coin
• Use a round cutter to cut out discs of the dough and place on a lined baking tray
• Bake for 10 minutes and check, but they’ll likely need an extra 2 minutes (they should be golden brown in colour and shouldn’t be rock hard – they’ll harden as they cool)
• Warm up the fondant in your hands to soften it – use 2 shades of the same colour
• Roll the two colours into sausage shapes and twist them together before rolling them out (on a surface lightly dusted with icing sugar) to create a marble effect
• Use the same cutter to cut out discs of the marble fondant
• Make a simple icing to glue the fondant discs to the cookie discs (add a drop of water to some icing sugar) when the cookies have cooled
• Use gold piping gel to monogram your cookies – if you have a fine nib you can probably do 2 initials on each cookie, but I could only fit 1 letter on each
• Dust your monogram cookies with glitter (obviously)

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Drip & Drizzle Gingerbread

Jackson Pollock at work

The artist Jackson Pollock was an influential figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was born on 28th January 1912, and to honour him on his would-be birthday, I have designed ‘Drip & Drizzle Gingerbread’. The bold decorating colours and splattering I used for the glaze are imitations of his painting technique. This recipe is adapted from Dan and Phil’s ‘Pumpkin Spice Pumpkin Cookies’ Halloween Baking video tutorial. I know gingerbread and pumpkin spice are flavours typically associated with autumn and Halloween, but the rich taste and aroma of these cookies are enough to warm me up and put a smile on my face this winter!

Ingredients (makes about 200 small cookies!)

665g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1½ tsp ground ginger
225g unsalted butter
395g granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
115ml dark molasses (treacle)

To decorate: about 50g icing sugar, a few drops of water, coloured food dyes and coloured fondant

Method

Part 1 – preparing the dough

• Create a flour mixture by combining the following dry ingredients in a mixing bowl: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger
• Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl until light and fluffy 
• Add the eggs, vanilla and molasses to the creamed mixture
• Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture until a dough is formed
• Split the dough in half and form large discs with both sections
• Wrap the discs in cling film and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours to chill

Part 2 – baking the cookies 

• Preheat the oven to 190°C
• Take out the desired amount of dough – either keep the rest in the fridge (for up to 3 days) or in the freezer until your next baking adventure
• Sprinkle a clean surface and large rolling pin with spare plain flour
• Roll out the dough and cut 1/4 inch thick shapes with cookie cutters
• Place the cookies on a baking sheet (leave enough space for them to spread out in the oven)
• Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes (the cookies will set completely when taken out of the oven so do not wait for them to harden in the oven, otherwise they will be rock solid!)
• Leave on a cooling rack whilst you prepare the decorations

Part 3 – decorating the cookies

• Sprinkle a clean surface and a small rolling pin with icing sugar and roll out coloured fondant of your choice
• Cut out shapes using the same cookie cutters that you used for the cookies themselves (the fondant should be about the same thickness as a £1 coin)
• Set the fondant shapes to one side and prepare the icing glaze (this dries out quickly so should be done last)
• Put a few teaspoons of icing sugar into a small bowl and add a drop of water, then mix
• If the paste is not fluid enough, add a couple more drops of water (you can keep adding water or icing sugar to thin out or thicken the glaze until it reaches your desired consistency)
• Add coloured food dye to the glaze
• Take a teaspoon and add a small dollop of glaze on top of each cookie (to act as glue) before placing a fondant shape directly on top
• Use a spoon to drizzle the glaze on top of the fondant – I lined mine up on the counter and used large sweeping strokes to do this
• If you have 2 different coloured fondants and food dyes, you can make 2 batches of fondant shapes and glazes and use the opposite coloured glaze on the fondant (this works best with opposite colours, i.e. blue/orange, yellow/purple, red/green)