Bags and Shoes Cookies Recipe

Ingredients

• zest 1 lemon plus 1tbsp juice
• 100g (4oz) butter
• 100g (4oz) caster sugar
• 175g (6oz) plain flour
• 1 free-range egg yolk
• some paste food colourings
• 200g (7oz) sugar paste or fondant icing
• a little icing sugar and apricot jam
• sugar decorations or edible glitter, to decorate

you will need

• shoe and handbag biscuit cutters, floured, and 2 baking trays, lightly oiled

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 C, 160 C fan, 350 F, gas 4. Place the lemon zest, butter, caster sugar and flour in a food processor and blend to fine crumbs. Add the egg yolk and lemon juice; blend again. If it's a little powdery, add a touch of cold water. Gather into a ball, knead for a few minutes, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 15 minutes.

2. Dust a work surface with flour and roll the dough to the thickness of a £1 coin. Cut out shapes with cutters and place on a baking tray. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden at the edges. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from the baking tray to cool.

3. Knead a tiny amount of colouring into the sugar paste. Dust the work surface with a little icing sugar, then roll out thinly and cut out the icing using the biscuit cutters. Brush each biscuit with a little jam, then press the sugar paste onto the biscuits and decorate.