4 Snowflake Cookie Cutters

I struggled at first but this works well with shortbread and sugar paste shapes. Roll out chilled dough to1/4". Flour cutter and stamp into dough, twisting it slightly. It DOES stick in the cutter.Turn cutter over and tap it sharply a couple of times on work surface. This loosens the dough. Turn back and prod out out waste dough with rounded paintbrush handle. Hold cutter close to baking sheet and tap it gently with knife handle until it drops out. Removing waste makes cutter more flexible and releases dough better, due to vibration I suppose. Worth trying, be patient end result is great.

Allow plenty of time to make these, fiddly but well worth the effort. I used 100g butter/100g caster sugar/1 egg/275g plain flour/ 1tsp. cinnamon. I used the end of a lollipop stick to push these out of the cutter starting from the centre and pushing out towards the edges. This actually added a bit of texture to the top of the cookie. If you roll the dough out and leave to firm up it is much easier to remove without breaking. Really glad I persevered.

I'm astonished to read so many negative reviews about these cutters! Yes, they are more fiddly than a simple cutter, but they are far more detailed. They are sturdy and well made. I think it would have been a good idea to include some instructions and possibly a simple recipe, but apart from that, I love them!