Honey Spiced Stars

It's that time of year.  Time to start thinking about Christmas baking. When I was a little girl, my mom and I would bake and decorate cookies for Christmas.  We always made sugar cookies, dozens of them! 

Sugar cookies are delicious, but Christmas is suppose to smell like cinnamon and spice.  That's why I am going to show you this simple recipe for Honey Spiced Stars.  

This recipe is perfect for baking with children.  The dough is easy to make, easy to cut out and can be made with just a few store cupboard ingredients.  

Here's the recipe:

150 grams (1 cup) plain flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
75 grams (1/3 cup) butter - diced
3 Tablespoons clear honey

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour and spices.  Add the butter and with your fingers or a pastry cutter rub the butter into the flour mixture.  When the flour and butter mixture looks like bread crumbs, stir in the honey to make a soft dough.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Place the chilled dough between two pieces of plastic wrap and roll it out to 1/4 inch thickness.   Dip your cookie cutter in a bit of flour before cutting the cookie shapes.   Place the cookie shapes on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.  If you want to use the cookies as decorations now is the time to make a hole for ribbon or twine.  

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C/350F for about 10 minutes or until the edges of the cookies are lightly browned.  Cool on a wire rack before decorating.  

Royal Icing is best for cookie ornaments but the decorating possibilities are endless!  Best of all, it really does smell like Christmas!