Hobbit Cookies

Put your sugar and softened butter together in a big mixing bowl. Mix by hand or use the easy option and use an electric whisk. When these two ingredients are combined, add 1 egg and your vanilla extract in the bowl as well. Resume mixing until combined.

Add in the flour and whisk until you get a crumbly dough mixture. This is the part where you have to dig in and get your hands messy - push the dough together into a firm, round ball. Cover the vanilla dough with some plastic food wrap and place it in your refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Now is a good time to choose your cutters. You need 3 circle cookie cutters. The largest one for the cookie bases, a slightly smaller cutter for the brown fondant icing which is the hobbit door frame and a slightly smaller cutter for the green hobbit door. If you don't have circle cutters, you can cut around different shaped small bowl rims or mugs.

After the dough's been chilled, roll it out on a large, flat kitchen surface. If there's too much dough to roll the whole lot out - just roll half out first. I roll my cookies out to around 5mm thick but you can make them the thickness you prefer - they don't rise in the oven so whatever thickness you roll is the thickness the cookies will be.

Cut out as many circles as you can from the dough with your largest circle cutter. Bake the cookies on lightly floured baking trays on Gas 4 (350°F / 177°C) for about 10-12 mins. They'll be a nice golden brown when ready. Place onto cooling racks to cool down.

You need a small packet of brown ready-to-roll fondant icing, about the size of your hand. Or just buy a whole tub so you can easily save what you don't use for another project!

I use Regal-Ice fondant which comes in a ton of color choices and is easy to play (sorry) bake with! It's really like using Play Doh. You will need to read the instructions on your packet or tub but prime the work surface and your hands with a sprinkling of confectioners' sugar (or Icing sugar as we call it in the UK) and then roll out a thin sheet of brown fondant.

Use the medium sized circle cutter to cut out enough brown circles to match up with the number of cookies you've made. If you want to add in extra detail, mark a cross or plus sign shape + by pressing into the fondant with a knife. Then add a X over the top. This makes the brown fondant look more like brick work around the Hobbit door when done.

Use the smallest circle cutter to make a green Hobbit door that Bilbo Baggins would be proud of! I hope you are finding this wizzles page to be useful because it has been written with care. Keep reading for the rest of this recipe.

You need some ready to roll green fondant icing. Roll it out and use the confectioners' sugar or Icing sugar to stop it from becoming too sticky. You can brush the white dust this sugar leaves off with a cooking brush once your cookies are finished.

Cut out all your green Hobbit doors. To give the impression of painted, green wood, mark some vertical stripes across each door using a knife.

A flat, blunt knife like a palette knife will come in handy here for moving the fondant.

Fill a tiny bowl with cold water and dip your finger into it. Wet the middle of the brown fondant to the rough size of the green fondant. Slide your blunt knife under a piece of green fondant and place it in the middle of the brown to make a door. Repeat for the rest of your pieces.

Microwave for a short 10 second burst or warm a small pot (2-3 tablespoons) of apricot jam. Carefully spread a tiny amount of jam in the middle of a cooled cookie to the rough size of the fondant Hobbit door you've just made.

Pick up a fondant door by sliding a blunt knife underneath and place it in the middle of your cookie. Press down lightly and put to one side while you complete the rest of your cookies.

I've used small pieces of chocolate coated candy in yellow for little, edible door knobs. To fix each door knob in to place, you just need a small amount of water. Dip a little finger into some cool water and dab this into the middle of your cookie. Press a piece of candy or whatever edible item you have which makes a great door knob into the middle. Leave your fondant cookies to dry out on a tray. And enjoy your little piece of Tolkien nostalgia.