Vanilla cookies recipe

These vanilla cookies take 20 minutes to bake and the recipe makes between 15 and 25 depending on the size and shape of your cutters. 

These make a great alternative to our easy chocolate chip cookies, if you want something a little simpler in terms of flavour and a base that can be decorated with icing or melted chocolate. A batch of cookies will take around 30 minutes to make and then you need to cool before icing. 

Ingredients

• 125g (4oz) unsalted butter, softened
• 150g (5oz) caster sugar
• Pinch of salt
• Few drops of vanilla extract
• 1 medium egg
• 250g (8oz) plain flour

Method

1. Cream together the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla extract until the mixture is light and fluffy.
2. Beat in the egg and then the flour until the mixture binds together to form a dough. If the dough is very soft, wrap it in plastic film and chill it until it’s firm enough to roll out.
3. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 3-4mm (nearly ¼in) thick and use cutters to cut out shapes, re-rolling trimmings as necessary until all the dough is used.
4. Place the cut-out shapes on the lined baking sheets. If there is time, chill the shapes for 10-15 minutes and set the oven to 160C (140C fan, Gas 3).
5. Bake the biscuits in the centre of the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies start to turn golden at the edges. Remove the baking sheets from the oven.
6. Leave the cookies to cool for a few mins on the baking sheets, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely and decorate as you wish.

Top tips for making vanilla cookies

For the best vanilla flavour use the most expensive vanilla extract you can afford or scrape the seeds from a pod instead. The benefit of using a pod is that your cookies will have a lovely speckled finish too.

Jessica Ransom

“A mistake that many people make when baking is not creaming the butter and sugar together correctly. This guide on how to cream butter and sugar will help ensure you are successful every time!” 

With an adjustable rolling pin you can be confident you are rolling the biscuit dough to the perfect thickness. This one is one of our best kitchen gadgets under £50.

Joseph Joseph Adjustable Rolling Pin - View at Amazon 

Another practical piece of equipment from Joseph Joseph we don’t think you’ll want to live without. It comes with four sets of removable discs which will help you achieve thicknesses of either 2mm, 4mm, 6mm or 10mm.

Try our sugar cookies recipe next, it makes 18 and uses only seven ingredients. These peanut butter cookies are another great option to make with kids or our Snickerdoodle biscuits are a twist on the American classic.