Basic Biscuits - great for kids cutters

I used muscovado sugar for this batch,
gave a lovely colour (plus we had run out of caster)

The Junior Gingerbread's love to have made something for visitors. Visitors with experience of kids maybe (wisely) dubious of their creations. These are a fairly safe bet - they don't get handled too much and what you see is what you get.
A brilliant basic biscuit dough. Gives a lovely crisp and moreish biscuit. Works an absolute treat with the kids plastic and metal biscuit cutters and tastes yummy too. These are really easily changed to keep them from getting repetitive. One option is to vary the flavour with a few drops of lemon, orange, vanilla or almond essence.  Half dipping the biscuits in melted chocolate, rolling in crushed nuts, adding some dried cranberries or dropping on a few chocolate chips - there are loads of things you can do to make them more interesting. This makes a generous plate full. I'll do a rough count next batch and update.

I got these great cutters from my sister for Christmas

Ingredients

250g butter, softened

140g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

2 tsp vanilla extract

300g plain flour

Method

Mix 250g softened butter and 140g caster sugar in a large bowl with a wooden spoon

Add 1 egg yolk and 2 tsp vanilla extract and briefly beat to combine. 

Sift over 300g plain flour and stir until the mixture is well combined - you might need to get your hands in at the end to give everything a really good mix and press the dough together.

Oven temperature 170c - bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and slightly firm on top.