Method:

1. Make the dough: In a large bowl, sift the flour and add the cubed butter. Rub with your fingertips to form a breadcrumb consistency, with no large lumps of butter remaining (much like when making a crumble topping). Then add the sugar, cinnamon and salt, gently stirring until everything is evenly distributed.

   Next, add the milk and cut through the mixture with a palette knife, gradually pressing the dry into the wet until it forms a rough ball. Then get your hands in and work the dough until the mix is even and the dough holds together.

2. Refrigerate: Wrap the dough in cling film or a sandwich bag and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

3. Preheat and prepare: While the dough chills, prepare several baking sheets with baking paper (or if using the USA nonstick range, there’s no need to line). Towards the end of the chilling time, preheat the oven to 160°C.

4. Roll: Once the dough has chilled, dust a work surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 0.5 cm. You may want to dust the top of the dough with flour occasionally to prevent sticking.

5. Cut: Use your desired cookie cutters,  I went for a range of star shapes and snowflakes and also cut a few freehand baubles. Transfer each biscuit to the tray as you cut, leaving a 1 cm gap between each biscuit, as they will grow slightly during baking. Keep re-rolling the dough until all biscuits are cut. You may need to bake in several batches depending on your tray and oven size.

6. Bake and cool: Bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Once baked, let the biscuits cool for a few minutes on the tray before transferring to a cooling rack.

7. Decorate: Decorate as you wish! I made some paper star templates and cut a pattern in them to sprinkle icing sugar over. You could also decorate with piped white glace icing.

   Enjoy! These should keep for several weeks in an airtight container.