Step 1

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or using a hand mixer with the double beater attachment, cream the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy.

Step 2

Add the egg and vanilla paste, and beat until evenly incorporated.

Step 3

Sift together the gluten free flour, xanthan gum and salt, and add them to the rest of the ingredients. Mix with the stand/hand mixer until the dough is smooth and comes together in a ball. The cookie dough shouldn't be sticky to touch.

Step 4

Wrap the cookie dough in cling film and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Step 5

Pre-heat the oven to 355 ºF (180 ºC) and line two baking sheets with greaseproof/baking paper.

Step 6

After 1 hour, briefly knead the chilled cookie dough. At the beginning, it will be very crumbly but after about 1 minute of kneading, it will be firm but smooth.

Step 7

Roll out the cookie dough to about 3 mm thick. Using a round cookie cutter about 2 - 2 1/3 inch (5.5 - 6 cm) in diameter, cut out the cookies. Re-use the scraps to make more cookies – in the end, you should get 32 individual cookies.

Step 8

Place the cookies onto the lined baking sheets about 1/2 inch apart.

Step 9

Bake at 355 ºF (180 ºC) for about 10 minutes. The cookies will be soft directly out of the oven – allow them to cool on the baking sheet.

Step 10

Place the chopped dark chocolate into a heat-proof bowl. Heat the heavy/double cream until boiling hot, then pour it over the chocolate.

Step 11

Allow to stand for 2 - 3 minutes, then stir well until you get a smooth chocolate ganache.

Step 12

Allow the ganache to cool slightly until it reaches the consistency at which it can be piped.

Step 13

Pipe the slightly cooled chocolate ganache onto 16 of the 32 sugar cookies, then place the other cookies on top to make a cookie sandwich.When piping, leave at least 1/4 inch space around the edge of the cookie – when you sandwich the cookies together, press down slightly to fill in the gap with the ganache as it spreads.Allow the ganache to firm up slightly – this will take about 15 minutes (to speed things up, place the sandwich cookies into the fridge).

Step 14

Dip the sandwich cookies into the melted dark chocolate to get the pattern you can see in the pictures above. To do this, dip half of the cookie into chocolate, then rotate it and dip in the other half, leaving a small triangle of the cookie uncovered.

Step 15

Pipe small dots of chocolate onto the triangles not covered by the chocolate to make "buttons".

Step 16

Place goggle eyes and marzipan beaks onto the cookies (see pictures in post).

Step 17

Allow the chocolate to firm up.

Step 18

Enjoy!

Step 19

The penguin Christmas cookies keep well in a closed container in a cool dry place for about 1 week.