Sheep Cookie Recipe

A few weeks ago, I published photos of the wonderful cookie 'sheepscape' that Emma made. A few of you asked for the recipe.  I contacted the publisher and asked it they would mind if I provided the recipe here. Well, first of all, they said that Emma's cookies looked 'fantastic'! And then they said that, although they don't ordinarily grant permission for recipes or extracts to be published, I was welcome to print the recipe here for the personal use of my readers. Thanks very much Parragon Books!

Farmyard Friends
Makes 25
(from '1001 Cupcakes, Cookies & other tempting treats')

heaping 1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups superfine sugar

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for dusting

2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

few drops of food coloring

tube of decorating icing

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy. Gradually add the eggs and beat to combine, then sift the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix to form a dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Set aside one third of the dough and leave uncoloured. Divide the remaining dough into portions and knead in different food colourings. Shape the dough into animal shapes* and place the cookies on the baking sheets.  Bake for 20-25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Add eyes and other features with the decorating icing.

*Fluffy sheep cookie: For the body, roll small balls of uncolored dough and lay them on the baking sheet, touching each other in an oval shape. Use colored dough to shape the head and feet.

Parragon Books Ltd, © 2009

Emma used a melted chocolate and cocoa mixture rather than food colouring to colour a small part of the dough (she only coloured about 1/3 of the dough). She didn't use decorating icing.

While the book shows the sheep-shaped cookies, Emma went one step further and created stars, a moon and a fence.

If you come here regularly, you already know that we have an enormous cookbook collection in our house. '1001, Cupcakes, Cookies & other tempting treats' really is a lovely book. We've made several recipes out of it and all have turned out beautifully.

All photos © Kathleen Maunder 2012