Pig Christmas shortbread

we offer to complement the New Year's table with cute cookies in the shape of pigs. If desired, these cookies can be pierced from above with a toothpick before baking, thread through the hole and hang the pigs on the Christmas tree.

Ingredients

• 200 g flour
• 120 g butter
• 2 eggs
• 50 g sugar
• 1 bag of vanilla sugar
• 3 g salt
• 50 g dark small pitted raisins
• a pinch of ginger, cardamom, or cinnamon optional

Directions

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and vanilla sugar. Add spices if using.
2. Divide 1 egg into yolk and white, shake the second in a bowl and add the white from the first to it.
3. Mix the yolk with softened butter. Add dry ingredients, stir and grind into coarse crumbs. To collect the crumb, pour 1 tablespoon into the dough. ice water.
4. Knead a smooth and pliable shortbread dough. Collect it in a ball, put it in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough into a layer 3-4 cm thick. Using a glass or pastry ring, cut out circles from it and put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment.
6. With a ring with a smaller diameter (or, for example, with a glass-pile), cut out round blanks for the patches and ears (there should be 1.5 times more of them than the "heads"). Cut half the circles into quarters - these will be the ears.
7. Lubricate the baking sheet with a beaten egg. Attach the patches and ears to them, use a toothpick to make two holes on the patches. Press the eye raisins into the dough. Brush the egg back over the dough.
8. Bake cookies in an oven preheated to 180C for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before serving.