Cream the butter and sugar

• Beat the soft salted butter with the icing sugar and vanilla extract.
• Cream for 1-2 minutes until pale and fluffy.

Make the dough

• Add the egg whites and fold in the flour until just combined.
• The dough should look like mashed potatoes.

Divide and colour the dough

• Divide the dough in half, keeping about 2 tbsp extra for the plain dough.
• Mix the cocoa powder into one half and add milk to adjust the consistency.
• Colour 2 tbsp of the plain dough with red gel colouring.

Pipe the cookies

• Fill the piping bags and pipe the puppy shapes and Santa hats onto the tray.
• The dough warms in your hands and becomes easier to pipe as you go; if too stiff, warm the bag near the oven for a few minutes.

Chill the piped cookies

• Chill until firm to the touch before baking.

Bake

• Bake at 165 °C for 20-25 minutes.
• If they brown too quickly, cover with foil and continue baking.

Decorate

• Decorate the cooled cookies with melted white and dark chocolate.