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Big Black Dog: Animal Crackers all dressed in Plaid!

August 1, 2008

Animal Crackers all dressed in Plaid!


I love making cookies and really consider myself a cookie baker above all else. Although I have not had time to make many cookies lately and I hope to change that in the next few months!


I've been looking for a good summertime cookie and I found an excellent one. It's a basic sugar cookie with fresh orange juice and zest and absolutely yummy. If I was making these for myself, I would have skipped the icing. But I'm sending these to my 3 gorgeous Great Nieces in OH, so I iced them up and they turned out so pretty and unique. I just had to enter them in Holly's Art You Can Eat, "Special Effects", blog event.

I send my nieces packages every now and again for no special reason. I loved Animal Crackers when I was a kid and I always include a box of animal crackers for each of them. So I decided to make my own animal crackers this time.



Animal Crackers
Recipes adapted from AllRecipes

1 1/4 cups white sugar
2/3 cup butter
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
Zest of 1 large orange
2 tablespoon orange juice

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Add eggs and beat until smooth. Stir in the flour, baking powder, and salt until well blended. Mix in the orange juice and orange zest. Shape dough into a saucer shape and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Line cookie sheets with parchment.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter. Place shapes onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake until edges are lightly browned.





Icing
Recipe adapted from "I don't have a clue"

2 cups sifted confectioners sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla (I used Orange Water)
1/4 cup milk

Sift the powdered sugar in a small bowl. Gradually add 1/4 milk until icing is the consistency of heavy cream. Add 1/2 tsp orange water or vanilla. Add food coloring a drop at a time. You'll need to make more of this icing to completely cover each cookie. I just made 1 batch per color.




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9 Comments:

Blogger kat said...

those are super cute, i love how you iced them

August 1, 2008 at 1:22 PM  
Blogger Shelby said...

I love how you decorated these, wouldn't mind eating one right now either!

August 1, 2008 at 10:12 PM  
Blogger glamah16 said...

Great looking cookies. I noticed we are almost neighbors . Im in Chicago. Just wanted to stop by and say hello to a fellow DB.

August 2, 2008 at 10:35 PM  
Blogger Ivy said...

This is such a great idea! They look really fun and soooo cute! :)

August 3, 2008 at 10:15 AM  
Blogger Chef Jeena said...

What colourful cuties.

August 3, 2008 at 5:28 PM  
Blogger Lucy..♥ said...

How fun, & cute! Sure, your nieces will be loving these ;-)

August 4, 2008 at 9:17 AM  
Blogger Robin said...

Hey Michelle can I be your niece too!? Congrats on winning the Art You Can Eat contest for your pretty jams. Darn I missed the deadline for Aug 1. I was away. Some other time. Love the Animal Crackers, they turned out great.

August 4, 2008 at 7:12 PM  
Blogger NKP said...

I love that you made your own animal crackers! They are super groovy tie-dyed. Way out!
Now I am starting to understand the challenge - I didn't know what they meant by special effects when I first read it. Thanks!

August 6, 2008 at 11:43 AM  
Blogger Lisa said...

Oh, so pretty! I love to make sugar cookies. I have such nice memories of them from my childhood. Now your lucky nieces will too!

August 13, 2008 at 11:15 PM  

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