Cat Cookies!

I felt really cruel eating these!

I was inspired to make these cookies after seeing bluemotion's post at bakebakebake (which is an AMAZING community that was the real reason I begain baking in the first place, but more on that later). I fell in love with the idea of making cute shaped cookies and couldn't help myself, I had to give it a go. The original creator said it was just a kind of shortbread formed into little cat shapes and covered in icing,so I didn't see why it wouldn't work for me. However, lots of people seem to have had trouble with them in the past, so I was cautious. A special thanks to Bluemotion for then inspiration for these cookies

Having read bluemotion's post and examining other attempts at these cookies I decided not to put anything in the center of them and just go for a solid cookie, meaning that I had to bake them quite small otherwise they wouldn't cook thoroughly. I choose a recipe that was meant to be baked in a cake tin, hoping that this would ensure the cookie would cook all the way through. The recipe is once again taken from 'Baking' by Emma Patmore, this book will be with me forever.
Originally I was planning on dipping them in dark chocolate and the icing on the faces using white chocolate, but since they were a bit of an experiment and the only chocolate I had was Lindt 70% coca I didn't want to be wasteful, so I went with a simple glaze made from icing sugar and milk, and used then end of a Wonderbar chocolate flavoured coting for the features (I think this was bought in the days when I didn't know a whole lot about baking).

They're like a little family!

Recipe: Shortbread Cat cookies

Ingredients:

125g/ 1/2 cup butter, softened
40g/ 8tsp granulated sugar
25g/ 8 tsp icing sugar
225/ 2 cups plain flour
Pinch of salt
2-3 tsp water

Method:

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter and the sugars until light and fluffy.
Sift the flour and salt into the creamed mixture. Add the water and bring together to form a soft dough.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough into a 20cm round and cover with cling-film. Refrigrate for about half an hour.

Heat oven to 160 degrees C/ 300 F
Remove from cling-film and place on a lightly floured surface. Break off small clumps of dough and shape them into rounds, then use your fingers to pinch up little ears. Be careful not to make them too big or they won't cook through, but don't make the ears too small either or they will become too hard during baking and bread off.
Place on a greased baking try and cook in an oven for about 30-40 minutes, it depends on the size of your cats, until golden and crisp.
Leave to cool

The decoration is up to you really. I just mixed some icing sugar with water to form a glaze, dipped the cats in it and left it to set. Then I melted some Wonderbar "chocolate" and used a (clean!) paintbrush to add the freatures ( I really have to master the art of piping-bag making). I think they would be amainzing with a dark chocolate coating and white choclate filling, but that's just me. Oh, and don't forget to dip the ears in chocolate, I think it's the icing on the cake ^_^

Bye!