Bake Your Own House Husband (and no chill, no spread cookie dough)

And here he is. What a beauty of a cookie! Talya over at Niion UK asked me to write a blog on their fab new range of cookie cutters, which you can buy on Amazon and Ebay. And I thought I would jump at the chance, and also show you the recipe I have for a no chilling and no spreading simple sugar cookie dough, that tastes fab!

So, this greeted me a few weeks ago when I came in one afternoon. A Bake Your Own House Husband Cookie cutter. Lovely!

Most wives and girlfriends moan about how nice it would be to have some help around the house. A bake your own husband is the perfect way to give them just that. Whizz up a mix, add everything you need, pop him in the oven and tah-dah, the perfect handy man, who leaves no lady unsatisfied. He is tasty!!

What I personally liked about these house husband cookies is that you can  bite their heads off at any given moment. Or dismember them, whatever you prefer.

So, onto the cookie ingredients. There was a perfectly good recipe on the back of this cookie cutter, however I thought I would use a one that someone gave me a little while back, that has worked without fail every time.

Ingredients

210g butter
200g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract if you have no paste to hand)
1 large egg
430g plain flour

I got 10 men out of this mix, I also made some smaller shapes with the scraps, as I hate to waste anything!

First thing is first. You need to preheat your oven to 200 degrees, 180 if using a fan oven, or gas mark 6. Line your baking trays (I used 2 large ones) with greaseproof paper and put to one side.

In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar, and then add your vanilla bean paste and egg, and beat well.

Now add the flour and work this mixture together into a dough.  When this is done, divide your dough into 2-3 portions. It is much easier to work with smaller sizes. Knead the dough very lightly, on a floured surface until it is smooth, and not so sticky. If it still feels sticky, sprinkle a little more flour on the dough.

Now roll onto a lightly floured surface and cut your biscuits out. Like so:

The lads are looking good already!

Now, to keep the shape, use a palette knife to get your men (or whichever shape you choose to use) from the floured surface and onto the baking tray.

Now, simply pop in the oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly golden in colour. When these are cooked, simply transfer to a wire rack to cool.

To decorate. Now I am not so good with Royal Icing and the whole flooding thing, and I wanted this to resemble something that did not look like it was made by a toddler. Which trust me, it would have done!

So, the old faithful fondant icing came out. I used the same Bake Your Own House Husband cutter, and cut out a thinly rolled piece of fondant icing. I stuck this with some glace icing, but you can use buttercream, edible glue, jam, etc. Now, the same palette knife trick comes in handy here. If you try to use your fingers you can guarantee you will stretch the icing, or tear it, and you will want to bite his pretty little head off before you have even dressed him up!

Now simply stick him on the cookie, and let him rest for a half hour or so.

Now, for the decorating. You can feel free to do exactly what you wish to do with him now. I used some gel colours, mixed with a tiny amount of water, and hand painted him. Again, art is not my strong point, so you must forgive me. I know there is some room for improvement, however as it stands, I like him!

And I also liked this cookie cutter. Lots. He is coming out for lots of outings with me. I have a few hen nights planned this year, and I am sure these cookies would go down a treat at every single one of them.

If you would like to buy yourself a cookie cutter, you can find him, and a few more options, one being a Bake Your Own Boyfriend, on either Amazon or Ebay, for £3.60 each. And boy, he is worth it!

So grab yours now, and get baking!!