the day started really badly (yesterday, my beloved calico kitty had surgery to remove a polyp from her middle ear, and this morning brought news that there had been complications from the surgery. we have great faith in her vet and hope for some good news soon and a good recovery), and i needed to find a way to try to cheer myself up.

a couple of weeks ago, i had been fooling with a recipe for old fashioned animal crackers, you know the kind that come in the cardboard box and taste of vanilla, mace and nutmeg. yum! well, i think i figured it out! so, to keep myself busy, i decided to give the recipe a second test run.

i used my brand new bunny, chick and egg plunger cutters in keeping with the holiday. i also whipped up some royal icing for glazing some of the cookies.

Animal Crackers

Ingredients 

384g (3 cups) Cup4Cup gluten free flour blend

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground mace

12 Tbs. (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

200g (1 cup) granulated cane sugar

1 large egg

1 tsp. LorAnn Princess Cake and Cookie Emulsion, vanilla paste, or vanilla extract are okay to substitute

Method 

1. Whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and mace. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer using the flat beater, beat the butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, slowly adding the sugar and beat for 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and flavoring and beat for 1 minute, scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
3. Stop the mixer and add half of the flour mixture. Beat on low speed until most of the flour has been absorbed. Add the remaining flour and beat until all of the flour has been absorbed and the dough starts to form a ball in the bowl, about 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 4 equal balls. Shape each into a disk and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
5. Place the dough disk on a lightly floured counter or Silpat and stand at room temperature for 5 minutes. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour and roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. (If the dough cracks while rolling, let it sit a little longer at room temperature.)
6. Preheat an oven to 350°F.
7. Line a baking sheet or half sheet pan with a Silpat or parchment paper. Dip the cookie cutters into flour just before using and cut out the shapes. Gather up the scraps, reroll and cut out more cookies.
8. Bake the cookies until very light golden brown, 13 to 15 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks and let the cookies cool to room temperature. One dough disk makes about 24 cookies.