Chicken And Egg Cookies

Yield: Makes 20
Prep Time: 90 mins
Cook Time: 15 mins
Difficulty Level: 1/5

Ingredients

• 125 g butter
• ¹/³ cup sugar
• ¹/³ cup icing sugar
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1¾ cups plain flour, sifted

ROYAL ICING

• 1 eggwhite
• 1½ cups icing sugar
• 2 tsps lemon juice
• A few drops of yellow, orange, blue, green and pink food colouring
• 20 g dark chocolate, melted

Steps

01. In a bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Fold in flour. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough and shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic and chill 30 mins.

02. Preheat oven to moderately low, 160 C. Line 2 oven trays with baking paper.

03. Roll dough out on a floured surface until 0.1 cm thick. Cut out shapes using 6 cm egg-shaped and chicken-shaped cutters. Arrange on trays 2 cm apart. Bake 10 to 12 mins. Cool.

04. Prepare royal icing in a bowl; whisk egg-white until frothy. Add sugar and lemon juice, whisking until smooth. Divide icing into 4 small bowls. Tint one bowl yellow, one blue and one green. Reserve remaining icing.

05. Spoon yellow icing into a piping bag fitted with a small plain nozzle. Pipe around border of each chicken-shaped cookie. Then flood centre to fill with icing. Repeat with blue and green icing on egg-shaped cookies. Set aside 20 mins to set.

06. Using a smaller nozzle, pipe yellow wing, orange feet and beaks, and chocolate eyes on chicken cookies. Pipe dots onto egg-shaped cookies.

Photo: Bauer/Rob Shaw