There is a joy in baking they say. But I would rather say baking is therapy. For so many years now baking has been one of the ways through which I relieve stress, anxiety and any emotional feeling I have.

Back when I was doing Engineering school I found out that the joy I get from baking and sharing what I bake is a 1,000 times better than any other thing I do. That was the time when I decided to drop the engineering thing and attend A hospitality school instead.

I won’t claim that I know how to cook/bake everything nor that everything I do is always successful. Honestly speaking, if I would look back at the items I used to bake I don’t even know how I still had the courage to keep baking and dropping school for that!

But what is worth mentioning here is that no one is born with master skills, it is something that you work on and keep learning day by day. So what if you burn the first 20 batches of cookies or destroyed X number of cakes. It is the practice that makes perfect. Don’t give up on baking no matter what, if it makes you happy go ahead and bake till you are happy with what you do.

Festive season baking…

Before doing this countdown, I was pretty much excited, that doesn’t mean I am not anymore. But I would rather say baking this year was a bit of a bittersweet thing. Firstly, being committed to this meant I have to bake no matter what even if I was at work for 16 hours I still needed to go back home kneed the dough or bake or do whatever I need to do to make sure I am on top of my schedule. Then even though I said baking is therapy, but festive baking is about gatherings it is about baking the 1000 cookie you must bake with your family or friends, munching on a couple while they are still hot.

If you would go back to any of my Solo meal posts, you would figure out that I said cooking for yourself is important and that you should still cook and enjoy no matter what, you should also celebrate the solitary cause it is not a bad thing. However, festive baking makes you feel the loneliness, or I would rather say the nostalgia for home and family.

Let’s get baking…

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For the Sugar butter cookies, you start with creaming the room temperature butter and sugar using a paddle attachment. Mix till nice and creamy for 3-5 minutes. Add in the egg, vanilla, and mix for another couple of minutes till fully incorporated.

Mix all the dry ingredients together and make sure you sieve it. Add in the dry ingredients gradually till a dough is formed. Mix till the dough is combined, you don’t need to over knead or mix the dough here.

Wrap the dough with cling film and place in the chiller to be used later.

Rest the dough for half an hour at least, roll out to 1 cm thickness, stamp the dough and cut to desired shapes.

Bake at 180 for 10 – 12 minutes or till light golden color.

If you are planning to frost it, all cookies to cool completely and you can use the royal icing recipe for that.

Baker’s Notes…

• Controlling the temperature of the oven plays a very big role in your baking. The recipe calls for 180C but if you are aware that your oven might be a little bit too high in temperature or low then you need to adjust.
• With these cookies, I used the Christmas stamp first then I cut the cookies. The instructions ask for the opposite, however, I find it strange cause pressing with the stamp could affect the size of your cookies. So if you want to have uniform size then use the stamp or any press first then cut out the cookies.
• I was baking in big batches, so I was rolling out a large amount of dough at a time. So After cutting the cookies I was arranging it in the tray and placing it in the chiller for 10 min. Be careful if the cookies got too warm then once baked the cookies will lose their shape.