Cinnamon Shortbread & Eating Leftovers in our PJ's

Cinnamon Shortbread

I know this is a little out of season, ok waaay out of season, but since I've been on hiatus I lost track of my drafts. I found this one this morning and I thought that it would be perfect for the wintry weather we're experiencing right now! It is unseasonably chilly in Ireland with gale force winds and hail, rain and sleet. We haven't seen the sun for more than a few hours at a time in weeks so I think a nice mug of hot chocolate is in order with a few of my cinnamon shortbread. Yum!

This is the easiest and most practiced Christmas (or anytime) recipe I have, I know it by heart and can rhyme it off since it's  based on my original  Shortbread Recipe just with added cinnamon and some icing for decoration. Every Christmas Eve there's a tradition whereby we get together with our neighbours after the nativity mass and have drinks and nibbles and these are an ever present and much loved choice.

Shortbread

Makes around 30 cookies

• 220g butter (room temperature)
• 100g caster/ superfine sugar (granulated will work but the others are preferable)
• 350g plain flour
• 2 tsps ground cinnamon
• 1-3 tbsp milk (more if necessary)

Preheat oven to 170 C

Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, in a separate bowl combine the flour and cinnamon

Add flour mixture and mix until the dough has the consistency of breadcrumbs (I always use my hands for this)

Add milk 1tbsp at a time until dough comes together into a ball

Roll dough out to 2-3mm and cut out cookies

Bake for 15 mins, until golden at the edges

Cool on a wire rack

If you decide to decorate them, to make the icing mix royal icing sugar with a little water and beat until it thickens to a stiff pouring consistency. Transfer to an icing bag and decorate. I tend to just use the icing to highlight the edges of the cookies rather than flooding them which I find makes the cookies way to sweet, but this is the creative bit so have fun with it :)