150 gr (1 and 1/3 cup) sifted flour

50 gr (1/4 a cup) almond meal

1 egg yolk

95 gr (3/4 cup) of icing sugar

100 gr (a little less than 1/2 cup) of soft butter

2 tablespoons of milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla paste or extract or scraped seeds.

1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves

Plus ground cinnamon and icing sugar for dusting.

As I often do with cookie dough, I chucked all the ingredients in my Kitchen Aid and let the machine turn the messy assembly into a slightly sticky paste.

Naturally, you can do this by hand, and rather quickly too. Put your flours and spices into a bowl, then add your soft butter and quickly work it into the flour until it all looks crumbly and  wrong…Don’t panic! Simply add your yolk and milk and knead with the palm of your hands to release the gluten in the flour that will magically turn this goop into perfect cookie dough.

Add the vanilla, then roll into a ball, wrap in cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll out your dough onto a floured surface. Cut out your angels and place them onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment.

Rest in the fridge for 10 minutes while you bring your oven to 170 Celsius (340 Farenheit).

Bake for 10/12 minutes. They will still feel quite soft, but keep in mind that they will firm up during the cooling time.

Dust the angles with ground cinnamon and icing sugar while they are still hot from the oven and surrender to the  X’mas Spirit!

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