Easter Bunny cookies

Spring is here. My dahlia plants are growing quickly, and a pair of doves are nesting in one of the hanging planters in my patio. 
It also means its time for Easter. While it is a relatively new festival for me, I think its a wonderful way to celebrate the advent of spring.  All the colourful eggs and bunnies make me smile. This Easter, I made some white bunny butter cookies with pink ears to give away as party favors. Here it goes. 


Preparation time: 1-1.5 hours
Bake time: 20 minutes
Yield: 40-45 cookies


Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour 
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup/ 2 sticks unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 egg (room temperature)1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pink gel food color

Method:

Cookie dough:

• In a medium bowl, whisk flour and salt together. 
• In a large bowl, beat two sticks of butter and sugar together until fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla until mixture is pale and smooth.
• Add the flour mixture in and mix just until the flour is incorporated. The dough might not come together completely. Knead into a soft ball. 
• Take a ball of dough about 2-3 inches. (I made some pink bunnies too. Pinch off less if you want only white bunnies). Add a drop of pink food colour to the small piece of dough and knead well, till the colour is evenly blended. Add more colour if you want a darker shade of pink.
• The dough is pretty firm- almost like play dough consistency. I started shaping right away. If the dough is soft to work with, cover in cling film and refrigerate for 45 minutes and then work on the shapes.

Shaping:

• Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll a tablespoon of dough into a smooth tear drop shape to resemble a bunny. Gently place on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining white dough. Place each of the shaped cookie dough about 1'' apart. The cookies dont spread much. 

Pink bunny ears.

Super cute bunny tails

Tiny pink bunnies

• Pinch very small amount of pink dough, and shape into a bunny ear. Place on top of the white dough bunny and press down gently. Repeat for the other ear. I tried several shapes (some with round base and narrow tips, some floppy ears and some narrow long ears), and dont think any two bunnies looked identical. 
• Pinch an even tinier amount and make a tiny bushy tail of the bunny. Repeat above process for tiny pink bunnies.
• Refrigerate the cookies for 30-45 minutes. 

Baking:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Bake for 18-20 minutes in the middle or lower rack till cookies light brown on the bottom.
• Let cool completely. Make tiny eyes (with molten chocolate and a toothpick), whiskers etc if you wish. I just left them the way they were. Simple and cute!

Easter bunny cookies 

Wrapping: Since I wanted to give each guest some cookies as party favors, I had to figure out a way to wrap them in small boxes. Here's what I did.

• Printed template I had seen here, and improvised to make it somewhat simpler (given that I was making these the night before Easter). I swapped the bunnies for eggs, and cut the template on colourful construction paper. 
• Wrapped 4-5 cookies in cling film and placed in each of the folded boxes. Tied the top with wire tiebacks.
• Adorned boxes with easter ornaments and candies. The outcome was cute and colourful. What do you think?

Easter party favours

Happy Easter!!

Bon Apetit!

Hetal from Houston


PS. I made two batches of cookies, and they turned out great both times. :)

PPS. This recipe is based on original recipe from Rabbit Cookies.