Turtle Cookies

 

 Boy turtle cookies

Girl turtle cookies

I saw these cookies on Pinterest about 4 months ago and pinned them because I knew I wanted to make them for my mom's birthday. My mom is kind of obsessed with turtles. She thinks they are "soooo cute." She has a lot of turtle figurines and I had made her a ceramic turtle from Petroglyph a couple of birthdays ago. She has pendants and jewelery... and even has a Boudin bread turtle that she has kept as "decoration" in the kitchen. So when I saw these on Pinterest, I knew I had to make them. February came around and I got to try them out for my mom's family birthday celebration. The original tutorial and recipe can be found here on Diamonds for Dessert's blog. Her tutorial is so accurate and easy to follow that I am not going to bother replicating the images.

"Icebox" Cookie Dough (adapted from Diamonds for Dessert's blog)


2 1/2 cups flour
2 sticks butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Wilson's "Moss" green gel coloring (if you are going for all natural ingredients, use 2 tsp matcha powder as the original recipe calls for)  
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/8 cup red melting chocolates (optional)

Preparation

1. Cream the butter and the two sugars together.
2. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time and then, mix in the vanilla.

[STOP here to separate the mixture into separate bowls.]

3. Split the mixture that you have so far in thirds and set aside for now.
4. In one bowl, add 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour and 1/2 tsp green gel coloring (or the matcha powder). Add one third of the previously split mixture and mix until you get a dough. Mix thoroughly.
5. To the other bowl, add 1 1/2 cups flour. Add the remaining two thirds of the previously split mixture and mix. Now you should have one green cookie dough and one vanilla cookie dough.
6. Split the vanilla dough in half. Place half of the vanilla dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll it so it forms a log with a 1 1/4" diameter.
7. Sandwich the green dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to a rectangle as long as the vanilla log and wide enough to fully wrap around it (it'll be about 1/4" thick).
8. Wrap the green dough around the vanilla dough log. Use your fingers to smooth out the crease formed.
9. Cover the entire log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
10. Once the dough is firm, remove from the refrigerator. Slice 1/4" thick slices from the dough log and place the cookies onto the baking sheets.
11. Take the other half of the vanilla dough, sandwich it between plastic wrap, and roll it out to 1" thick.
12. Use a round 1" cookie cutter to cut out circles from the dough. Take the cookie cutter and cut off part of the circle to form crescent shapes for the turtle heads. (I had to get creative here and use a heart shaped cookie cutter and knife to cut off the rounded parts of the heart for the heads)
13. Use a big straw (like the ones for pearl milk tea) to cut out small circles. Use a knife to cut each circle in half. (I again had to get creative and had to use a small flower cookie cutter and knife to cut semi circles)
14. Now take 1 log slice, 1 crescent, and 5 small semicircles (4 for the feet and 1 for the tail) and stick them together to form a turtle.
15. Preheat oven to 325°F.
16. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
17. Add all the semi circles to the base cookie log slices. Pinch the tail semicircles so it looks triangular. Add two black sprinkles on the crescent for the eyes. Repeat for the other log slices.
18. Chill cookie turtles for 10 minutes.
19. Place in the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes.
20. Let cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then move the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Decorating

1. Melt the chocolate. Place it in a piping bag. (I cheat and stick the chocolate directly into a freezer bag and then once melted, cut a small slit in one of the corners in order to pipe the chocolate.
2. Pipe two vertical lines on the shell. Then, pipe two horizontal lines on the shell perpendicular to the vertical lines.
(Optional) 3. Melt red melting chocolates and make two triangles near the head of the turtle to form a "bow." This makes girl turtles.

 Enjoy!