Mince Pie Cookie Recipe

I love a good mince pie but the kids aren't as bigger fans as me so I came up with a recipe that still has that festive feel but is a bit more appealing to the children.

These cookies are similar to those that you can purchase at Millie's Cookies, sweet, delicious and doughy.

The mince meat just gives them that Christmas touch.

White Chocolate and Golden Syrup Cookies Recipe

You may have noticed that I have got really into my baking recently. I love trying out different recipes and adapting them to make them my own.

The great thing, is that they make a perfect addition to the girls lunch boxes too and the cakes and cookies don't cost a lot to make!!

This week I found some white chocolate for baking at the back of my cupboard, luckily for me it was still in date. So after looking at what other ingredients I had in the cupboard, I decided to make some cookies.

Ingredients

* 150g Self Raising Flour
* 100g Castor Sugar
* 110g Butter
* 100g White Chocolate cut into small chunks
* 30g golden syrup
* 1 Egg
* 1 Tbsp Strawberry Jam

Preparation

* Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and grease two baking trays.
* Mix the butter and sugar together.
* When softened, pour in the golden syrup.
* Beat in the egg.
* Add the flour and fold it into the mixture.
* Finally mix in the white chocolate and strawberry jam.
* Spoon balls of the mixture onto the trays, making sure to leave space inbetween each one.
* Pop into the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown and place on a wire rack to cool.

These cookies are quite sweet but you could always leave out the golden syrup if you don't have as much of a sweet tooth as we do :)

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Baking Fun With Magic Belles

Let me introduce you to the Magic Belles. Six tiny fairies who live in a special place called Bellevue. Meet Cupcake Belle, Rainbow Belle, Flower Belle, Butterfly Belle, Love Belle and Star Belle. In this magical place they fly around sprinkling magic dust, creating lots of super fun for your little girls.

On the site you will find plenty of activities from music, games, colouring and stories but if that wasn't enough, you can even join their special Flutterbud Fan Club and receive lots of lovely goodies through the post!!

I was extremely lucky to be picked along with a few other bloggers to receive an extra special treat from the one and only Cupcake Belle. We got not one but two parcels in the post, these contained the instructions and the utensils to make some scrummy cupcake cookies, an apron and hat, icing to go on top of the cookies, a stand to put the finished product on, as well as the money to go and buy all the other much needed ingredients.

So whilst my eldest two were at school, Gracie, Layla and I toddled off to buy all of the ingredients, we needed :

* 125g unsalted butter

* 125g castor sugar

* 250g plain flour

* 1 egg

* 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

We decided that Saturday would be the day to make the cookies as this is when we all had the time to do things as a family together. First things first, preparation. Now there was only one apron and hat, so my girls each took a turn in wearing it, each looking equally cute, I'm not biased, honest. We placed baking sheets onto the trays and put together the stand to put the cookies on once they were baked.

Here is how to make the cookies :

* mix the sugar and butter together

* add the egg and vanilla extract and mix 

* sieve in half the flour, mix and then sieve in the remaining half and mix

* cover in clingfilm and put in the fridge for an hour (longest hour ever!!)

The girls each took it in turns to mix the ingredients together, the floor got a good covering of flour in the process.

Once the dough was taken out of the fridge, we had to roll it out and cut out the cookies. I admit the recipe said to use the largest cookie cutter however my girls had other ideas and we ended up doing a few of each size. The cookies were placed on the trays and put in the oven to bake for around 15 minutes, until they were a nice golden brown colour. These were then placed on a wire rack to cool for a little while.

Then the fun really started because we had to decorate the cookies with the icing. Mummy helped knead the icing to soften it up. The girls then rolled it out and used their cookie cutters again to make the perfect shapes to put on the cookies. The icing was stuck on by brushing on a little water, this acted like glue. They had the most fun rolling up the little balls of icing to act as the cherries on top of the cakes.

You can see what they created above. I was so impressed. Yes mummy had to help a little but because it was a simple recipe, they did the majority of the work themselves. It allowed them to learn to work together but to also do things independently. Mummy was even happier that they volunteered to help her wash up after as well.

Let's not forget the best part......... eating them!!! The cookies lasted all of three days because they were just too scrummy to leave alone. 

We would like to thank Cupcake Belle and everyone else at Magic Belle for allowing us to participate in this task. You can find more news from the Magic Belles on their Facebook and Twitter pages.

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Disclaimer : We were provided with all the tools and ingredients to make these scrummy cookies however all thoughts and opinions are mine and my daughters.