Recipe: Chocolate Cookie Mice

(Adapted from a recipe published in Cookies, Bars, Brownies by the Pillsbury Company)

Ingredients

3/4 cup sugar

100g butter, softened

100g vegetable shortening, softened

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 large egg

2 1/4 level cups plain flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking powder

Miniature dark chocolate chips

Red or black string licorice, cut into 5 cm lengths

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. In a large bowl, beat sugar, butter and shortening until light and fluffy. Add vanilla and egg; beat well. Stir in flour, cocoa and baking powder. Mix until well combined.

Shape cookie dough into 3 cm balls. Pinch one end to form a pointed mouse nose. For the ears, make two tiny balls of dough, less than 1 cm across, and flatten slightly. Press carefully onto the upper-front portion of the mouse body. For the eyes, push two miniature chocolate chips into the pointed end of the dough ball.

Place cookies about 5 cm apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes until the cookies just set. Remove from the oven and immediately push a piece of licorice into the rounded end of each cookie. Allow to cool completely. Remove from cookie sheets. Makes 36 cookies.


Variations

Stuff the mice with chocolate by pressing two chocolate chips into the dough while rolling it into a ball. Technically the cookies can also be stuffed with jam, but the cookies tend to lose their shape during baking.

Additional notes

• Shortening is annoying to soften. You might have warm it over the stove or in the microwave oven.
• Press the ears onto the mice properly, or they may fall off during baking!
• I find it easier to insert the licorice tails if the rounded ends of the mice are facing the edges of the pan.
• Don't touch the chocolate chip eyes after taking the cookies out of the oven! They will be melted, hot and very painful!

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