Kooky Cookies

Hello fellow readers,

I'm writing to you on my all time favourite weekend of the year. Meaning that it's the Great Glebe Garage Sale and Ottawa Race Weekend!!! Thrifting/running... could it get any better? I think not. Oh wait, it can! PLUS my cousin Moni is in town because it has become a tradition in the past years that my Peterborough fam comes down for the races. 

Instead of posting some über cool pre run meals/snacks like I probably should, I'm going to show you guys how to make owl cookies. You might be wondering why I suddenly had an urge to make animal shaped cookies, the reason is simple. A couple of weeks ago it was my friend Julia's birthday. Small back story: Julia and I worked at Dovercourt as camp counsellors for the past four years but we hadn't really gotten to know each other. Then, I find out she's the ONLY person I know going to Bishop's and she is in business too. So long story short, we are now good friends and I wanted to bring her owl cookies because she LOVES and I mean LOVES owls. If you still don't believe me, visit her owl themed pinterest board. Seeing as both of our offices are downtown, we met up and I presented her with these kooky owl cookies.

Kooky Owl Cookies

from Take a Megabite

Ingredients

- 3 cups of flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp ground ginger
- ⅛ tsp allspice

- pinch of cloves
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the toppings:
- Chocolate chips (about a quarter of a bag- 2 per cookie)
- Almond (1 per cookie)
- Coconut (a pinch sprinkled on each cookie)

Directions:

✿ Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices in a medium bowl. In a large bowl using an electric hand mixer, beat the sugar, brown sugar and butter together until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Blend in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, mix in the dry ingredients until just incorporated. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap and chill until firm, 30-60 minutes.

✿ When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut out using a (2 1/2 inch) round cookie cutter. Roll out 2 small balls of dough for each cookie. Place the rounds where the eyes would go for the owl and press a chocolate chip in the center of each. Press an almond between the eyes for the beak and press coconut on the sides for feathers.

✿ Bake for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool for a couple minutes on the baking sheets before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy the cookies, they're easy and people like them because they're impressive looking!

The hat I got at a garage sale