Life Round Clarina's: Countdown to Christmas 6: Austrian Christmas biscuits...

This Saturday morning, Ava and I had a quiet one. We have had a girly week as Dave has been away in Germany with school, and we have had a lovely time with Bestamor (Ava's norwegian Granny) who returned to Norway on Friday. So Saturday was just the two of us, and I decided, for the first time, to attempt braving baking with a one year old!

Every year, since I live in Austria, I have made a batch of yummy Austrian Christmas biscuits... this year, in light of all the busyness, I decided to only attempt one kind. My lovely mother-in-law also sent over some lovely homemade coconut norwegian biscuits, so I figured two types of Christmas biscuits would do us this year!!!

So, here's how to make "Schneeflocken", or in English "Snowflakes" - they are literally a melt in your mouth vanilla shortbread type biscuit and they are utterly divine. They are also made of ingredients that I have in my cupboard all the time. Easy, quick and incredibly YUM!

You need:
* 250g butter (unsalted)
* 100g icing sugar
* 10g vanilla sugar/ 1tsp vanilla essence
* 200g cornflour
* 130g flour

1. Cream the butter the sugars (/essence) and the butter in a mixing bowl.

2. Add the remainder of the ingredients and knead the mixture until it comes together (don't be tempted to give up before its completely kneaded together - I did that one year, and then when they were in the oven, all the biscuits just melted into one big buttery mess!)

3. Form walnut-sized balls out of the mixture, and put them onto a baking tray. Make sure they are decently spaced out, so they don't merge as they will spread out as they bake

4. Press the balls down gently with a fork to make a marking on the top.

5. Bake at 180 degrees until the biscuits are very light brown coloured. (Approx 15 mins)

6. Sit down and eat - they LITERALLY melt in your mouth!!

HEALTH AND SAFETY WARNING...
If baking with a one year old, attempt to avoid the following possibilities...