I made thesecranberry and orange cookieswith my mum for the Christmas holidays. They are dairy-free, sugar-free and egg-free, so they are suitable for vegans! They are very delicious and look really good on the Christmas tree too. They are really easy to make!

You’ll need:

• 200g plain flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• 50g dairy-free spread (you can use unsalted cold butter)
• Zest of one organic orange
• Juice of 2 oranges
• 50g dried cranberries

How to make the cookies:

1. Preheat oven to 180°°C.
2. Ask an adult to chop the cranberries into tiny pieces.
3. Grate the orange peel into a small bowl. Juice the oranges.
4. Mix the baking powder and the flour in a large bowl, then rub in the butter with your finger tips (you can use a food processor, if you prefer – I like using my fingers).
5. Add the orange zest and cranberries, and mix well.
6. Add most of the orange juice gradually, then combine with a spatula until you get a smooth dough. Add more orange juice if needed.
7. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for about 30 minutes, until hard.
8. Roll out the dough between the clingfilm or on a lightly floured surface into 3-5mm thickness.
9. Using Christmas cookie cutters, cut out as many shapes as you can (I used angel, star, bell, xmas tree, candy cane shapes –  but moon, snowman, robin, Santa hat, boot shapes are good too).
10. If you want to hang them from the Christmas tree, add a hole on the top with a straw.
11. Re-roll the leftover dough and stamp out more shapes. Put the cookies onto a lined or non-stick baking sheet (you might need two trays).
12. Bake for about 10-15 minutes until just golden. Be careful though, they can burn quickly!

Let them cool in the tray for a couple of minutes, then using an oven or silicon glove, transfer them to a wire rack to cool.

Tips

• You can decorate the cookies if you like – just spread the top of each with a little maple syrup, then press the sticky side down into some desiccated coconut, granulated sugar or melted white chocolate if you like.
• Keep them in an airtight container or hang on the tree with some lovely ribbons.
• If you don’t have special Christmas cookie cutters, you can use play-doh cutters too –  all sets have star and moon shapes!
• If you want the cookies to be sweeter, you can add some sugar to the dough – bit your biscuits won’t be as healthy!