Here at Lindy’s Cakes we are always being asked for a the best recipe to use when decorating cookies, we use a few, but I think the winner has to be my vanilla cookie recipe. It not only tastes good and keeps well, it doesn’t spread to much when baking – a very important factor when you want to bake and decorate shaped cookies.
How to make and bake vanilla cookies
75g (3oz) butter, diced
1 small egg, beaten
275g (10oz) plain flour, sifted
30ml (2 tbsp) golden syrup
5ml (1 tsp) baking powder
100g (3½oz) caster sugar
2.5ml (½ tsp) vanilla extract
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- Preheat the oven to 170ºC (reduce by 10 – 20 degrees for fan) / 325ºF / Gas Mark 3
- Place the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl.
- Add the butter and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Make a hollow in the centre and pour in the beaten egg, golden syrup and vanilla extract.
- Mix together well until you have a ball of dough.
- Place the dough in a plastic bag and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to 5mm thick and stamp out the biscuits, using your chosen cutters. Lightly knead and re-roll the trimmings together again to use up all the dough.
- Place the biscuits on baking sheets.
- Bake biscuits for 12-15 minutes until lightly coloured and firm but not crisp.
- Leave on the tray for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Cookie decorating reference book
f you’d like a physical reference that includes this vanilla cookie recipe plus a couple of others, and I know that many of you do, the book you need on your bookshelf is my “Bake me I’m yours…cookie“ book. It is full of decorating ideas to inspire you too!
Decorated cookie inspiration and information
Over the years I must of baked and decorated thousands upon thousands of cookies, I love them. They are quick and highly effective and make wonderful small gifts that bring joy into peoples lives. If you’d like to see many more examples of the cookies I’ve decorated, many using my vanilla cookie recipe as a base, please take a look at my ‘Be inspired by cookies’ page. Here you’ll find a wealth of ideas, links to cookie cutters and a free how-to cookie decorating tutorial.
If you have found this blog useful, please share:
Happy baking and decorating
Lindy Smith
‘Bringing world-class sugarcraft into your kitchen’
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Colette says
I always make this recipe and love it – they always go down very well at the school cake sales!!!
Paulette says
Hi I like the look of this recipe, is it possible to freeze it? My sister-in-law is expecting any day now and I would like to be prepared so that I can make bootie cookies and then ice in the appropriate colour. If I can’t freeze how long can I leave the dough in the fridge for?
Lindy Smith says
Hi Paulette
Yes you can freeze the baked cookies (undecorated) – have fun!
Kay says
Hi,
I cannot eat eggs- what could I use instead? Just got this book and love it!
Lindys Team says
Hello Kay,
The other recipes in the book do not contain eggs – have a try of them. They really are very tasty.
Alternatively, you could try using egg substitute in the vanilla cookie recipe.
angela says
Don’t know if it’s me being dumb but where do you add the syrup and vanilla to the recipe?
Alison Inglis says
Looks a great recipe am about to try it out, but when do you add the golden syrup? I imagine it’s at the same time as the egg, but would just like confirmation.
Lindy Smith says
Oops! You were right I’ve now editted the text of the recipe, thank you
Have fun baking
Lindy
Lindy Smith says
An error on our part, sorry! Now included!
jane says
Hi! Since I’m in Canada….is “plain flour” the same as all purpose?…”golden syrup” I believe is corn syrup? and can I use regular granulated sugar for the “caster” sugar,even though I think caster sugar is finer?
Thank you!
Lindy Smith says
Hi Jane
Plain flour is ‘all purpose’ and you can use corn syrup instead of golden syrup. Regards caster sugar, you are correct it is finer than granulated, if you can’t find a finer sugar why not grind it up finer yourself – Hope this helps!
Happy Baking
Lindy
karin says
hi, i live in chile, and we dont have brown syrup down here, so can i use maple syrup instead, is the same quantity?
thks
Lindys Team says
Hi Karin,
Thank you for your enquiry.
We suggest that you use honey in the same quantity, instead of maple syrup as the consistency is similar to the brown syrup.
Have fun!
Marina
Sandra says
Hi! First of all I really like your blog, and your cakes and cookies are so beautiful. You are really talented.
I will be baking the cookies but I will like to know if I can use whole wheat flour instead ; or if I can use a mix of both. Thanks so much for your reply.
Lindys Team says
Hi Sandra,
We are glad to hear that you are enjoying the blog.
Lindy is amazing, a true inspiration.
The cookies can be mixed with whole wheat flour. We wouldn’t recommend using just whole wheat flour on its own as it would be too heavy but a mix will work. Half and Half maybe. Give it a try, and maybe do different batches of the cookies with varying amounts of the flour and see which come out best.
Hope you enjoy the taste testing!
Marina
Emma Morris says
Hi Lindy,
Thank god you were kind enough to share this on your blog for us. I have your book of cookie recipes but can’t find it and promised to make some today for my friend, so its great I found it on here…hooray!
x
Lindys Team says
Hi Emma,
Glad to hear you are enjoying the blog – Hope your cookies are a success, do let us know
Marina
Emma Brindale says
I always find that this recipe is a little too sticky – can you suggest what I am doing wrong?
Lindys Team says
Hi Emma,
The Vanilla Cookie Recipe may be too sticky if the ingredients are not 100% accurate in quantity.
There may be too much liquid so I would try measuring out the ingredients to the exacts amounts.
Good luck!
Marina
Carol says
Hi Lindy,
I’ve just made your vanilla cookies for a charity event. Due to the number I made, I decided to cut the shapes out, freeze them and cook them from frozen. They were absolutely delicious and remained crisp in air tight tins. I decorated them with jam and fondant icing and placed them into cello cookies bags and tied them within two days of the event and stored them all in air tight boxes. They went down really well and the comments were brilliant. However, they were slightly soft in texture and I am not sure why. Could this be due to the moist fondant? I have still got some undecorated biscuits in a tin and they remain crisp. Could you advise me where I may have gone wrong or is this normal with decorated cookies? I have to make the favours for my sons forthcoming wedding and want them to be perfect?
Carol