3 Kings Day Cookies

As mentioned in my last post, we like to celebrate Epiphany (on 6th January) – or Three Kings Day as it’s known in Germany – by baking cookies. For the last couple of years, we’ve made crown cookies, using two different crown shaped cookie cutters plus a third crown shape just cut out of the dough with a knife which is really easy as it’s all straight lines. Last year we decorated them with yellow icing, to make them look like gold crowns, and as for the pink and white stars…well, my boys love to chuck whatever sprinkles we have handy at their latest baking creations.

All of my baking is gluten free, which often means things loose their shape more easily, but these cornflour cookies always come out the oven exactly the same shape you out them in – making them perfect for using fancy cookie cutter shapes! They also happen to be dairy free/ vegan too. Here’s how to make them:

Ingredients (makes about two dozen cookies)

• 450g corn flour
• 90g corn starch
• a pinch of salt
• 210g margarine
• 200g sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla essence
• ca. 100ml cold water

Directions

• Rub together the flour, starch, salt and butter until you have something resembling coarse bread crumbs.
• Rub in the sugar and vanilla.
• Add the water bit by bit, kneading everything together until you have a nice, smooth dough. The exact amount of water will vary depending on what flour you’re using.
• Wrap the dough in cling film and chill in the fridge for 2 hours. Don’t keep it in there much longer, or it will get too hard to roll out!
• When you’re ready, pre-heat your oven to 200 C (or 180 C for a fan oven).
• Roll out the dough aprox. 5cm thick and cut out your cookies.
• Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with grease proof paper and bake in the oven for 10-15 mins.
• Leave to cool completely before icing!