Trilobite Cookies Recipes

PERFECT THUMBPRINT COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
• Mix butter and powdered sugar together with a rubber spatula until creamy. Add vanilla extract, almond extract, salt, and egg yolk. Mix with the spatula. Add flour and blend until just combined.
• Use a sorbet scoop to portion dough into 1/2-ounce (1-tablespoon) balls. Roll balls in a plate of white sugar to coat; roll again between your palms. Place several inches apart on a silicone-lined baking sheet. Flatten balls lightly with your fingers.
• To make shortbread cookies with a little jam, poke a well into each cookie using the end of a thick wooden spoon dusted with powdered sugar or using one of your fingers. Fill cookies with fruit jam. Tap baking sheet against the counter to let jam settle.
• Bake in the preheated oven until tops are barely blonde and bottoms are slightly golden, about 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack before icing.
• Meanwhile, mix powdered sugar with a little milk until you have a consistency that will hold its shape when piped. Pipe icing on top of cookies in a zigzag pattern. Let sit for 15 minutes before serving.
• For a more jam-forward cookie, press your thumb into the cookies to make large, shallow indentations. Spoon in jam. Tap baking sheet against the counter.
• Bake until not quite golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let rest on pan for 5 minutes before transferring a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar.

TRILOBITE COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream together the butter and sugar.
• Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder and gradually stir to incorporate all the flour into the creamed mixture.
• Do not chill!
• Make a sausage shape with the dough a little smaller than the barrel of the cookie press. Load the barrel and insert the serrated slot shape in the end.
• The serrated slot is usually used to make rectangular cookies by squeezing out a length of dough. That's not what we are going to do. Put the cookie press flat against the baking sheet and squeeze until you feel a bit of resistance, then lift off the cookie press, just as you would do for most of the other shapes. This gives an oval shape with ridges that looks a bit (a lot!) like a trilobite.
• If you are very clever, make all the trilobites the same size. Alternatively, accept that you probably won't get them all the same size and deliberately make some baby ones and mummy and daddy ones.
• Bake at 200deg C or 375degF for 10 minutes.
• Remove from the baking sheet and let the trilobites cool on a cake rack.
• At this stage, Prof Hart sticks two cookies together with some jam. I didn't have enough time to do that.
• Break the chocolate into a bowl and microwave on medium for 1 minute. Stir and then continue to zap for 30-10 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted.
• Dip about one third of the end of each cookie in chocolate and place on baking paper or waxed paper.
• Place two candy decorations or silver dragees on top for eyes.
• Leave until the chocolate has set.
• Store in an airtight container until, as the Prof says, they are extinct again.