I love beautifully decorated Christmas cookies.
Wait, let me re-phrase that. I love the IDEA of beautifully decorated Christmas cookies.
But making them myself? Not so much.
I have made them in the past, but after the amount of time it takes to make and bake the actual cookies, I kinda ran out of steam when it came time to decorate them. And I had a mishap with the icing that had me finding lumps of it under the couch weeks later.
Don’t ask!
So….yeah decorated Christmas cookies and I don’t mix particularly well.
My compromise is these sugar crunch cookies. They are simple, light and buttery with a sweetness, crunch and sparkle from a generous sprinkle of raw sugar for decoration instead of intricate piped icing. Much more my style!
And because they make a BIG batch, you will have foodie gifts and your contribution to the Christmas table ready to go.
Sugar Crunch Cookies
- Prep Time: 70 mins
- Cook Time: 13 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
- Yield: approx. 40 cookies
- Category: Baking
- Cuisine: Christmas
Description
Set aside an afternoon to make these Christmas Sugar Crunch Cookies. Super simple, light, buttery and perfect for Christmas foodie gifts.
Ingredients
- 3 cups plain flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 225g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for around 30 minutes
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg (large)
- 1/2 tablespoon vanilla essence
- Raw sugar for decorating
Instructions
- Sift together flour and salt in a bowl
- In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar using an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla essence
- Reduce to a low speed and add flour, beating until combined
- Split the dough into two or three pieces and roll into balls. Cover each ball in cling wrap and then press down on the balls with your hand to form a flat-ish disc. Chill each disc for 45 minutes
- Pre-heat oven to 140°C (fan-forced)
- This next step is really going to depend on how warm the day is when you are baking. Remove one disc from the refrigerator and take it out of the cling wrap. Roll out the dough between two pieces of baking paper until the dough is about 0.5cm thick. If it is a warm day, place your rolled out dough on a board and back in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill again. If it is a cooler day, move straight on to step 7
- Cut your shapes out of the dough and transfer to baking trays lined with baking paper. Sprinkle generously with raw sugar
- Place trays in the freezer for another 10 minutes to chill (this step will help stop the cookies from spreading in the oven)
- Bake for 13 minutes or until pale golden
- Cool on wire racks
- Repeat steps 6-9 until you use up all of your dough
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 0
- Calories: 0
- Sugar: 0
- Sodium: 0
- Fat: 0
- Saturated Fat: 0
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 0
- Fiber: 0
- Protein: 0
- Cholesterol: 0
Keywords: Christmas cookies, sugar cookies, Christmas cookies recipe
Originally published December 2015
Hi! My name is Nina.
I’m a Certified Intuitive Eating Counsellor taking the ‘diet’ out of Dietitian. I am here to help you reject diet culture, tune into your body’s own inner wisdom about how to truly nourish yourself and ultimately feel good eating™ 
Nina the cookies certainly look and sound yummy looking forward to them Christmas Day.
Nina these look amazing! So glad to have connected with you and your blog via the Virtual Christmas Party – such a fantastic idea, don’t you think? Your sugar cookies would make such perfect little Christmas gifts as well, I love it (as well as the story about the frosting – I imagine a few choice words might have been spoken as the frosting went everywhere!!).
Claudia x
Ahhh yes you are quite right about the choice words Claudia!!
Absolutely gorgeous! I was looking for something lovely to take to work as little gifts, something that didn’t take up room in the fridge, and I have found it 🙂
Also, I so relate to your kitchen dramas. I used to have a tiny kitchen. Even now I have a reasonably large one which is currently coated in green coconut from my latest baking adventure. I’m even finding flecks of green coconut on my dog.
Haha! So glad you get where I am coming from Nicole.
What lovely delicate biscuits. they are perfect for Christmnas
Thank you Tania 🙂
These bikkies look so so buttery and delicious Nina! Merry Christmas and congratulations on a massive graduation year. xx
Oh dear, I couldn’t help but laugh at the visual of a spinning log of icing flying everywhere! I must admit I’m a bit partial to that glittery sugar topping though!
Oh yes, definitely funny in hindsight JJ!
too cute! Definitely could make a great gift
So beautiful, a treat just to look at these photos, thank you for sharing, Nina! 🙂
Thank you Nicole that is so lovely.