What Olivia Cooked: Hot Cross Cookies

After popping up a hot cross bun recipe last year, I figured it was probably appropriate to upload a recipe for those of us that simply aren’t feeling the buns this time of year (cheeky)! Although I was tempted to dip my toes into Creme and Mini Egg territory for this recipe, I thought I’d keep it extremely simple (and a little bit novelty) and put together some ‘Hot Cross Cookies’. There’s plenty of room for variation with these (especially if you have a currant craving instead of choc chips)- but they’re a fun alternative regardless, and a little bit simpler than making dough too!

You will need:
– 115g unsalted butter at room temperature
– 50g light brown sugar
– 50g caster sugar
– 1 egg
– 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
– Pinch of salt
– 175g self raising flour
– 70g (or as much/little as you like) milk/white chocolate squares

For the icing:
– 55g unsalted butter at room temp
– 125g icing sugar
-100g white chocolate
– Splash of milk
– Piping bag

1. Preheat your oven to 190 degrees (fan assisted), before mixing the butter and sugar together to create a creamy mixture.

2. Beat your egg and vanilla extract together, before gradually adding it to the butter mixture. Add in your flour and salt (mixing it in bit by bit) and then throwing in your chocolate until everything is mixed into a dough mixture- it’s pretty easy!

3. Line a baking tray, and split the dough into 8-10 balls (depending on how big/small you want your cookies) before baking for 15/20 minutes, checking every now and again so that they don’t brown too much.

4. For your icing, beat the butter and sugar together until everything is mixed. Gradually melt the white chocolate (you can do this slowly in the microwave, checking every 10 seconds- or over a bowl of simmering water, just be careful as white chocolate burns very quickly) and leave to cool slightly, before adding it to the butter mix. If the mixture is too solid, add a little bit of a milk to loosen the consistency.

5. Once the cookies are cool, add your icing to a piping bag and cross each cookie with the icing for ultimate Easter kudos!