Sugar cookies and Alice in Wonderland

What do you think?  Cheshire Cat from Alice in Wonderland?  Hope so, since that’s what I was going for!  {tee hee}  I kinda like him, and my kids really liked eating him!  (By the way, I actually did this as part of a challenge for a flickr group, not because I have too much time on my hands!)

I started with sugar cookie dough, then used purple food coloring to create two different shades of purple.  After the dough chilled, I rolled out two rectangles, then placed the light purple on top of the dark purple.  I rolled it up and put it in the fridge to chill.  When I was ready to bake them, I cut the log into slices with a sharp knife and placed them on parchment-lined cookie sheets.  To make the ears, I cut some of the dough into triangles and gently smooshed them onto the swirl.  Smooshed… very technical baking term, don’t you know.

After baking and cooling, I got the facial features ready.  I melted a little bit of white chocolate and piped it into a crescent shape on waxed paper, waited for it to set up, then piped white icing around the edges and to separate his teeth.  Some black frosting piped on for whiskers, a little purple sprinkle for a nose, and two yellow m&m eyes.  (The m&ms, sprinkle nose, and the grin are “glued” on with more icing.)

I love the whole idea of pinwheel cookies.  They lend themselves to so many fun ideas!

Recipe:  Sugar Cookies

(adapted from an Alton Brown recipe)

3 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon milk

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. almond extract

Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place butter and sugar in large bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light in color. Add egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour, and beat until mixture pulls away from the side of the bowl.

Cover both with plastic and chill for approximately 5 minutes. Roll out doughs separately to approximately 1/4-inch thickness. Place one color of dough on top of second color and press together around the edges. Using waxed paper or flexible cutting board underneath, roll dough into log. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Remove dough from the refrigerator and cut into 1/2-inch slices. Place cookies 1-inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat and bake for 12 to 13 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through cooking time. Remove from oven and let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes, then move to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.