Calico cat cookies

You don’t need many ingredients or much time on your hands to create the most buttery and adorable shortbread kitties. And just like real calico kitties and their beautiful tri-colour fur, each one is unique and totally down to how you marble the dough and where YOU place the cutter!

Credit: Quadrille / Ellis Parrinder

• makes

  30

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  10 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 200 g salted butter, at room temperature, cubed (or vegan butter – use one that’s close to 80% fat content)
• 85 g caster or granulated sugar
• 280 g plain [all-purpose] flour, plus extra for dusting (to make gluten-free, substitute with a gluten-free plain flour blend plus ¾ tsp xanthan gum)
• orange gel food dye
• ½ tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

Makes around 30 small cats. 

Chilling time: at least 30 minutes (or freeze for 10 minutes). 

Can be made vegan and/or gluten-free.

Instructions

1. Line 2 baking trays (sheets) with baking paper or a silicone mat.
2. Beat together the butter and sugar in a large bowl until smooth and spreadable.
3. Add the flour (plus xanthan gum, if gluten-free) and mix until just combined. The dough should be slightly sticky, but soft and easy to handle.
4. Pinch off 2 x 35 g [1¼ oz] pieces of dough and set aside the remaining larger piece. Mix orange food dye into one of the small pieces and cocoa powder into the other.
5. If the dough feels too warm or soft, wrap it in plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 15–30 minutes until firm enough to roll out.
6. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and roll the large plain piece of dough out to around 5 mm [¼ in] thick. Press in pieces of the orange and brown dough all over randomly, then roll out again until around 4 mm thick. Cut out cat shapes using cutters, then transfer to the prepared baking sheets. You will have some leftover dough, so press this together and roll out again, being careful to prevent the colours from merging too much.
7. Chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, or in the freezer for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C [325°F/Gas mark 3].
8. Bake for 10–12 minutes until just ever so lightly browned at the edges. Leave to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheets, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store in an airtight container for 1–2 weeks.

 

Recipe from Bake Me a Cat by Kim-Joy, published by Quadrille. (RRP HB $32.99). Photography by Ellis Parrinder.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.