Scary Movie Night

Well, yesterday I went to a friends house and we stayed up late watching scary movies... alright, it was only one... and it was the Davinci Code. I know that it's not quite considered a scary movie, but boy am I glad we didn't watch a really freaky movie (which I actually usually enjoy) because I needed to get a good-night's sleep. The next day was my mom's b-day party after all, and I needed to get up early to prep her cake, among other things... I'll be posting that tomorrow, I hope :P

Anyways, back to the scary movie night... I decided to make some cat paw cookies. I got the idea from marthastewart.com but didn't really fancy the idea of making a sugar cookie and adding in black food coloring (YUCK!) It's so un-natural... and just plain gross. So I used my own chocolate cookie recipe and used her idea to make the cat paws.

My Version of Chocolate Cat Paw Cookies

Ingredients:

- 1/4 cup butter, softened

- 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar

- 1 large egg

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

- 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa

- 1/8 tsp salt

- 1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground

- 1/2 cup slivered almonds

Method:

1. Beat butter until fluffy; gradually add sugar and continue to beat well. Add egg and vanilla, blend until smooth.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour + cocoa + salt + cinnamon.
3. Add flour mixture to butter mixture, gradually (I added 1/3 cup at a time).
4. Divide dough in half.


NOTE: If you wish to work with a firmer dough, wrap each dough portion tightly in plastic wrap and chill for at least 1 hr.


5. Roll 1 portion at a time to 1/4-inch thickness on a surface dusted with cocoa powder (if dusted with flour, your cookies may have flour marks in your final presentation)
6. Cut with cookie cutters, and place on lightly greased cookie sheet.


NOTE: If you are making the cat paws, insert the slivered almonds at this time.


7. Bake at 350 F for 10 minutes; remove to cooling rack and cool completely.
8. Decorate as you wish.

Not everyone showed up to the movie; I guess they were too scared to watch the Davinci Code... sad. Those who tried the cookies said they were tastey, so I think I'll wrap up a couple and give them to the people who didn't come... wouldn't want them to miss out. The movie was good and I wasn't so scared that I couldn't get to sleep, so waking up for mom's b-day prep was not a problem.

SIDE BAR: I decided to make these on the day before the party, but I didn't have a cat paw cookie cutter. The Martha Stewart link above has a template for the cat paws, but I was not too keen on hand-cutting each cookie; especially not when a cookie cutter would save so much time. So I made my own! I was so impressed with myself... I just used a good pair of shearing scissors and cut the rim off of a butter cookie tin. Then I used a good pair of pliers to shape the paw the way I wanted. Simple, and I didn't have to spend any money on it! (that's always the best part)