Chocolate Sugar Cookie Mice.

[threeplusfire]

2 sticks (1 cup) butter, softened
1/2 cup crisco shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons good quality vanilla
1 teaspoon almond extract
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup cocoa
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1. In a mixing bowl, beat the butter and crisco until smooth, add the sugar and beat several minutes, until light and fluffy. This will take several minutes, you want the batter to lose it's grainy-ness and be very light in color.

2. One at a time, add the eggs, beat after each addition and scrape the bowl. Stir in the vanilla and the dry ingredients. If the mixture feels exceptionally sticky add about ½ cup more flour. You can touch the batter, if it sticks to your finger, add a little more flour. If it barely sticks, you don't need any more.

3. Preheat the oven to 350°. To create the mice, roll dough into small balls, and taper at one end. Shape little ears from small bits of dough, and mold onto the body. I use cinnamon candies for the eyes, because they bake well. Bake for 12-14 minutes depending on your oven. When the cookies come out of the oven, stick a two inch piece of thin, string licorice into them to create tails. Mice!

Comments

[cyniccat.livejournal.com]

By the way, that pierogi recipe worked fine.... except it generated about 4x as much stuffing as it did a proportionate amount of dough.

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Curious. I'll have to adjust my ratios then. More dough, less stuffing. I'm glad it was tasty though.

[cyniccat.livejournal.com]

My chef wannabe friend had to add extra stuff to it, like bacon. And he doesn't like onions as much, so I didn't make as much onion-butter sauce. But they turned out okay as soon as we figured out how to fold them the right way. And that you seal the edges with the egg on the inside. Sour cream and salsa also went well with them.

Re:

[tsarina.livejournal.com]

The folding is the only tricky part.
I love to eat them with sour cream, but I admit I had not thought of salsa... excellent.

I think the filling ratios for all things I cook come up higher, because I tend to 'taste' them frequently. :P