Elk And Other Animal Cut Out Cookies - cooking recipe

Ingredients

125 g butter, cut into pieces
250 g flour
1 tablespoon vanilla sugar (or use regular sugar and add some vanilla)
70 g sugar
1 egg (medium)
Optional Decorations
currants (for the eyes)
colored sprinkles
royal icing or coloured icing
melted chocolate

Preparation

In a big bowl combine butter pieces, flour, vanilla sugar, sugar and egg. Knead into a smooth dough. Wrap dough into cling film and refrigerated for 30 minutes.
On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough quite thinly (about 3 mm thick).
Cut out elks or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter and place on a paper-lined baking sheet. If you like attach a currant to each elk for eyes.
Bake in the pre-heated oven at 190\u00b0C/375\u00b0F for 8-12 minutes or until just slightly browned around the edges.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets and then transfer to a wire-rack to cool completely.
Now you can add any decorations you might like to add. I used some eggnog flavoured icing dipping the cookies into it and attaching a chocolate chip as an eye afterwards.
Let dry.