Chocolate Doughnut Cookies

Makes 40

INGREDIENTS

For the cookies:

1 cup margarine

1 cup castor sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

3 cups cake flour, sifted

1 cup NESTLÉ Cocoa

For the decoration:

1 egg white

1½ cup icing sugar, sifted

Light pink food colouring

2 tsp NESTLÉ Cocoa

Multicoloured vermicelli sprinkles

Hundreds and thousands sprinkles

METHOD

For the cookies:

Preheat the oven to 170 and line a large baking tray with baking paper.
In a bowl, beat together margarine and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed until smooth and light in colour, about 3 minutes.
Reduce the speed to low. Add the eggs 1 at a time, beating until fully incorporated.
Add the vanilla essence and slowly beat in the flour 1/3 cup at a time.
Add NESTLÉ Cocoa and mix until a nice dough has formed.
Remove the dough from the bowl and press into 2 flat rectangles.
Cover the cookie dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes to overnight. *Chef’s tip: The dough can be frozen for up to 2 months.
Remove the cookie dough from the fridge and roll it out to about 1cm thick on a lightly floured surface.
Cut out 40 cookies using a small round cookie cutter. Cut an even smaller circle out of the centre of each cookie using the back of a piping nozzle or a straw to create a doughnut shape. *Chef’s Tip: Roll out the centres and any offcuts to cut out even more cookies!
Refrigerate the cookie dough shapes for another 20 minutes to help them hold shape when baking.
Bake the cookies for about 12 minutes, or until cooked through. Allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the decoration:

Make royal icing by whisking egg whites until fluffy. Beat in icing sugar until icing is thick and glossy and a pipeable consistency.
Separate the icing into 3 portions, leaving one white, colouring one a deep brown with cocoa and colouring the last one pink with food colouring.
Place the different coloured icing into 3 separate piping bags with small round nozzles and cover cookies by outlining with icing, then filling with more icing. Finish off by decorating with sprinkles.
Serve with a glass of milk and ENJOY!