Christmas gifts- COOKIES!

I thought last Christmas that instead of spending $$$$ and losing my patience on trying to find some materialistic object for my mates in the crowded shopping malls, that I would spend some time in the kitchen and bake gifts.
This recipe I got from "Apples for Jam" by Tessa Kiros. The biscuits have a shortbread type texture, which personally are my favourite- am not too keen on the soft cookies as they tend not to last very long in containers and as I am the only one in the household who eats sweets, am "forced" to eat them all.
After so many failings since the start of this project, so much so that my husband is excited if I haven't cooked dinner! I went back to this recipe to see if it still worked and it did. Its nice to know that finally something has come out okay this week- I don't feel like a complete failure...  just someone who needs more practice!
Originally these were called Chocolate and Vanilla biscuits in Tessa's book, but I added a tsp of cinnamon to the vanilla batch so the name became invalid. I have renamed them to striped biscuits as this recipe was found in Tessa's "striped" section (the recipe book is based on colour- which is very different!).

Chocolate and Cinnamon Striped Biscuits

180g softened butter

3/4 cup  caster sugar

1 Egg

1 tsp Vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup plain Flour

1/4 cup cocoa

1 pinch of salt

1 tsp cinnamon

METHOD

1. Mash together the butter and the sugar in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Add a pinch of salt and 1 and 1/4 cup of flour (leaving a 1/4 cup) and work it in.
2. Whisk the egg with the vanilla and add to the bowl, mixing it all well. knead it quickly, gently and thoroughly (I found that you may need to add just a little bit more flour - so don't be afraid to, but remember we are adding another 1/4 cup in the next step- so not too much!)
3. Divide the dough into half. Add the tsp of cinnamon to one half, as well as the remaining 1/4 cup and to the other add the cocoa. Knead the ingredients in thoroughly.
4. Pat both dough out into flattish discs, cover separately with plastic wrap (aka glad wrap) and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 180c (I used 150c as I have a fan forced oven)
6. On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough and create your masterpieces, either combining the two doughs together to form wreath like biscuits or  making separate ones. 
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until they are crisp.

The amount made depends on how big you make the cookies, but I managed to get about 25 biscuits out of one batch. I also made a couple of batches into single flavour donut shapes and then added melted chocolate in the middle- yummy!