Icicle Cookies

This desert caught my attention because it isn't only a desert; it's also a decoration. Although, I have to warn you that I really did have a hard time making the cookies because the dough is very fragile and often broke while I was molding the cookies. This was just a quick note, but I have to say that despite all the difficulties I came across, I'm very satisfied with the final result; both taste-wise and appearance-wise. :D

You Will Need: 

• 2.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sugar (I only put half a cup)
• 3/4 cup softened butter
• 60g melted white chocolate (I used 100g, but I also added a bit more butter because of this)
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• granulated sugar (as much as is needed because you'll only be using it for decoration anyway)

How to Prepare:

1. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, blend sugar into butter until the mixture is foamy. Add melted white chocolate (I recommend you use double-boiler system to melt it because white chocolate tends to blacken if you melt it in the microwave for too long), one egg and vanilla.
3. When you have prepared the second mixture, add the flour mix into it bit by bit and stir until the whole mixture is smooth (there are not clots).
4. Shape the dough into a flat disc (simply press down/hit it with your hands until it's flat), wrap it in plastic wrap and live it to sit in t he refrigerator for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 175°C.
6. Take the dough out of the fridge.
7. Start forming your cookies by taking a heaping tablespoon of dough and rolling it out into a rope (feel free to choose the length of the rope yourself but I recommend about 25cm because if the dough tends to break/crumble if you make the cookies any smaller).
8. Fold the "rope" in half and start twisting (both ends together) so they are twisted around each other. Take care to leave a loop at the top if you want to hand the cookies later on (the ribbon will go through it so that's why). Also, make sure to taper the end of each cookie (i.e. make it narrower at the end) so that it resembles an icicle. You should have something similar to the pictures on the right.
9. After shaping the cookies, separate the egg white from one egg (don't beat it) and lightly cover the cookies with it with a brush. Sprinkle the sugar on the cookies (it should stick to them).
10. Repeat steps 7, 8 and 9 until you use up all the dough.
11. Cover your baking pan with baking paper and place the cookies on it. Leave a bit of room between each cookie.
12. Bake the cookies at 175°C for about 8-10 minutes, but keep an eye on them so they don't get too brown (they should actually be very pale and the bottom part will turn brown the fastest so judge according to the bottom parts).
13. Leave the cookies to cool down and, if you want, tie ribbons through the hoops so you can hand your cookies somewhere nice. :)

This amount of dough yielded about 20 cookies for me (made of approximately 25cm long ropes).

I hope you all enjoy the cookies and have a great time with your families and friends! :D

Blessed Yule to you all!