Take the butter out of the fridge so that it is at room temperature and cut it into small pieces. Put it in a large bowl and beat it with a spoon or mixer until it is ointment (with a cream texture).
If you are going to use sugar, add it to the butter little by little while you stir until you have a homogeneous mixture.
Add the egg and orange zest to the bowl, stir well until well mixed.
Add the corn flour, rice flour and cinnamon to the mixture. Stir until you start to have a dough that looks like “brittle crumbs”.
Add the milk and mix until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl, forming a soft, sticky ball.
Put the dough on a waxed paper and cover it with another. Stretch it with a rolling pin until it is 1 cm thick.
Now you have two options, you can directly make the cookies although the dough is a bit soft and more difficult to handle. Or you can put it in the fridge for 2 hours to cool down and be harder.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Cut the dough into the shape you want for your cookies, using molds or a knife. Little ones over 1 year old love creative shapes like stars or animals. For younger babies, it works very well for us to make elongated shapes with relief so that they can grasp them well (you can see them in the photo of this recipe).
Carefully place your cookies on a cookie sheet and bake for about 8 minutes or until golden.
Wait for them to cool down and you can eat them now, they are soft and easy to chew!
Tricks and tips
Orange zest can be substituted with lemon zest, tangerine zest, or a teaspoon of vanilla extract.
You can put the dough in the freezer inside a zip bag and it can last up to 2 months.
Once baked they keep well for a week or so if you store them in an airtight container.
Your baby should always eat cookies under supervision and sit upright while eating them.
Cookies must be a rare treat, you can’t eat them all the time, every day.
