ingredients

• 2 egg yolks

• 80 g unsalted butter

• 60 g powdered sugar

• 140 g AP flour

• 1 tbsp sea salt

• 1 tsp ground black pepper

• 1/2 tsp caraway seeds, ground

• 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, ground

• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika

method

• Add the egg yolks, salt, and pepper to a small bowl. Lightly whisk, and let it sit for an hour. The yolks use a quick-salting method, as opposed to an overnight one.

• Beat the butter and sugar in a medium bowl till the mixture is fluffy, pale, and creamy.

• Add in the salted egg yolks. Beat again to form a cohesive mixture.

• Mix all the other dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. Sift this mixture into the wet mixture in parts, and fold with a spatula till it forms a thick dough.

• Divide this dough into 2 parts in a 3:1 ratio, i.e., set aside 3/4th of the dough and add food colouring drops of your choice to the remaining 1/4th portion. Preheat the oven to 325 F.

• Flatten the dough balls into disks. Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.

• Take out the larger piece of dough, roll out to about 1/6-inch thickness, and cut it into 2” x 1” rectangles. Roll the second, smaller, coloured piece of dough similarly, and cut it into thin strips. Crisscross these strips over the rectangles, ribbons on a gift-wrapped box. Chill these cut out cookies again for 10 minutes.

• Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges of the cookies slightly brown. Take out the tray and leave the cookies on it for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Cool completely at room temperature before eating or decorating further!