Jumbo Animal Cookies

(Mother's original Circus Animal Cookies with my Jumbo version)

A couple of years ago, I purchased some tiny animal cookie cutters from Williams-Sonoma, and made some homemade animal crackers/cookies, plain and iced. It was a lot of fun, and the iced version tasted just like their original counterpart, Mother's Circus Animal Cookies.

So... the other day as I was searching through my cookie cutters for something fun to make, my large elephant cutter ended up in view and the light bulb went on...I can make some jumbo size animal cookies!

I used the same cookie recipe as before, and chose four animals: A lion, an elephant, a bear and a giraffe.

Just as before, the elephant is my favorite! I would call him Jumbo,

but as you can see, they are all jumbo! They are also BIG on flavor!

Do yourself a favor and also check out Bridget's gorgeous frosted (jumbo) animal cookies at Bake at 350! You'll be happy you did!

 

Animal-Cracker Cookies~Williams-Sonoma kitchen
(modified for JUMBO cookies)

Ingredients:
5 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. mace
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cup sugar
2 egg
2 tsp. vanilla extract
16 oz. buttercream icing
pink food coloring
nonpareils (rainbow)

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F.


Over a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and mace. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the flat beater, beat the butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Reduce the speed to medium, slowly add the sugar and beat for 2 minutes, stopping the mixer occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute, stopping the mixer once to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

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 pull away from the sides of the bowl, 2 to 3 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide into 2 equal balls. Shape each into a disk and wrap separately in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.

Let the dough stand at room temperature for 5 minutes.  Roll out the dough to almost 1/2-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes with cookie cutters and move them to parchment-lined baking sheets with a firm, metal spatula. (I used stoneware baking sheets, so didn't need to line them.)
Bake the cookies until very light golden brown, about 18 minutes. Transfer the baking sheets to wire racks to cool for about 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

Icing:
Place the buttercream icing in a microwave-safe bowl from 15-30 seconds(until pourable). If it becomes too thin, add some powdered sugar. Divide icing into 2 bowls. Tint half of it pink and keep the other half white. With the cookies on a wire rack, place the rack over a baking sheet(or over wax paper).  Use a spoon to cover each cookie with the icing. Sprinkle with the nonpareils.
Makes about 15 jumbo animal cookies.

Have Fun!

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