After 3 months without internet I am back to blogging and raring to go!
I made some simple, festive tasting reindeer cookies with my 3 year old son over the weekend. They have curly wurly chunks for ears, chocolate buttons for eyes and a cherry for the mouth, and look very sweet in a clumsy sort of way. As my son is only really interested in superheroes, I decided to make and bake the cookies on my own and just get him to decorate, and I think he quite enjoyed it. We will put what is left on the Christmas tree.
Allow about 20 mins prep, 15 mins for cooking and 5-10 mins for decorating.
The finished product – minus an ear thanks to a greedy Freddy
Coming soon is a lovely Nigel Slater kale and almond gratin which I reckon will make a great veggie side dish for Christmas dinner (or any meal). Even the carnivorous boyfriend gave it the thumbs up. Also, my brother is staying for Christmas so I am looking for inspiration for a gluten free day – let me know if you have any excellent suggestions!
In the meantime here is the reindeer cookie recipe, courtesy of Annabel Karmel. Make sure you decorate them about 5 minutes after taking them out of the oven, when they have cooled a fair bit but are still quite soft.
Ingredients (makes 11 big biscuits/22 smaller ones)
350g plain flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
Pinch salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
175g butter
150g caster sugar/light brown sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
Smallish chocolate buttons
Few curly wurly’s
Glace cherries
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees/gas mark 3. Measure the flour, spices, salt, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder in to a bowl. Melt the butter, sugar and golden syrup in a saucepan. Pour in to the dry ingredients and mix together. Lightly knead it to make a dough (i.e. move it about with your hands for one minute). Form in to 11 or 22 balls of dough (depending how big you want them). Pinch one end of the ball to form a point, then flatten out with your hand. Place on a baking sheet or non-stick baking tray. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly golden but still slightly soft.
Leave the cookies to cool for approximately 5 minutes, until they have cooled quite a lot but are still a bit soft. Put chunks of the curly wurly’s for ears, chocolate buttons for the eyes and a cherry for the mouth. Eat and/or decorate the Christmas tree with them.
Recipe by Annabel Karmel
katielovescooking 
Great to see you back and blogging Katie – and with some fun suggestions. Love the curly wurly reindeer antlers!!
Thank you Sam! : )
Welcome back Katie – we have really missed your tasty blogs! Love the curly wurst reindeer antlers!!
Thanks very much! Hope I can come up with some gluten free recipes that you can use before long!
We missed you! Welcome back! I love the Nigella Lawson clementine cake for a gluten free treat http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/clementine-cake-2559
With a bit of citrus mascarpone!!!! Any excuse for some Cointreau! http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3397/orange-and-almond-cake-with-citrus-mascarpone
Mmmm that sounds gorgeous – thank you very much xx
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Ooh, thank you for reminding me about these! I made them with my daughter two years ago for her school Christmas party – they were perfect because her class had been reindeer in the Christmas show. Last year I had a baby on 15th December, so was either very pregnant or post c-section for the whole Christmas period, and I opted out of most of the Christmas cooking/baking, but it will be lovely to make these again this year.
Thanks for the comment Helen! We are making this this week for the school Christmas fair (should probably let the kids eat one too!) Congrats on the baby : )