Kid’s Christmas Cookies

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For the biscuits:
225g unsalted butter
130g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
½ tsp salt 360g plain flour, sifted
Decorating ideas:
Make a bowl of royal icing by following the directions on the packaging of instant royal icing powder. Once mixed, tint with whatever colours you choose, then dip or drizzle the biscuits with the royal icing and get creative with the following:
1) Silver balls 2) Hundreds & thousands 3) Christmas themed sprinkles 4) Coloured sugar 5) Silver or gold food spray 6) Gummy sweets 7) Smarties 8) Use royal icing to pipe designs onto biscuits 9) Christmas themed royal icing ready-made decorations 10) Or forego the royal icing and simply just dust biscuits with icing sugar for a snowy effect

Preheat oven to 150°C/300°F/gas 2 and line 2-3 trays with parchment paper.
To make the biscuits, combine butter, sugar, vanilla and salt in a medium sized bowl and beat with an electric mixer until well creamed. Add the flour and use your hands to combine and knead into a soft dough.
Form dough into a thick disc and wrap with clingfilm. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes. After chilling, roll dough out on a well floured surface to about 5mm thick. Cut shapes using various Christmas themed cookie cutters and arrange cut biscuits on prepared trays. Place trays in fridge for 15 minutes or the freezer for 5 minutes.
Gather scraps of dough and work into a ball, then re-roll and cut as above, place biscuits on prepared trays and chill as above. Bake chilled biscuits for 12 minutes for smaller biscuits and up to 14 minutes for larger ones. Don’t let biscuits get darker than a slight golden tinge around the edges.
Leave biscuits to cool on trays for 5 minutes before removing from trays to cool completely on wire racks before decorating.
Keep biscuits stored in a cool dry place in an airtight container. Will keep for up to a week.