Tuesday's Letters Eat 41: 'Z' is for Zebra Biscuits

And so here I am at the end of my alphabetical cooking for 2011. It's been fun to wander through the alphabet with you. There have not been 52 recipes, because I was sick at the start of the year and then some letters are just really tricky. This way it leaves some time for Christmas cooking!! (Or requests)

These biscuits are made from dough, half vanilla and half chocolate. The dough is rolled out, cut into smaller pieces and then layered. It is refrigerated and then slices cut across the layers and then zebras, or any other shapes, can be made.

It was a warm day, so the dough took an hour or so to be firm enough to roll into shape, and then I left it overnight to set the layers. I can highly recommend pressing down to make sure the layers meld.

I had to roll my slices to make them a little larger so the zebra (horse) biscuit cutter would fit. I rolled the leftovers together, rolled them out again and made some  B&W crazy biscuits.

The recipe says it makes 18, but that depends on your fine motor control when cutting slices.

 

Zebra Biscuits  makes 18

• 1 1/4 cups softened butter
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 2/3 cup icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tspn vanilla
• 3 cups plain flour, sifted
• 1/3 cup cocoa

Using  a smaller bowl, if you have one, cream the butter and sugars until they are pale, light and fluffy. You can see the change of colour in the photos. Then add the egg and vanilla beat a little more.

Sift the flour into a larger bowl, add the creamed mixture, and oops, I forgot to add the vanilla till now. Then beat on a low speed till the flour is combined, increasing the speed as you go. I brought the dough together with my hands.

Halve the dough and add the cocoa to one half, mixing well to make sure it is chocolate coloured all the way through. Then refrigerate till firm enough to roll out. I kneaded the dough a little before I rolled it.

On a large piece of baking paper, draw a square 24 x 24cm, divided into half, and then sixths, each 12 x 8 cm. Place another piece of baking paper on the bench, then the dough and then top with the gridded paper. Roll the dough out to the proper dimensions and then trim to shape. Do this with each dough.

Stack the doughs, alternating the vanilla and chocolate, and then press together, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 190*C and line biscuit trays with baking paper. Using a sharp knife, slice down through the layers and lay the dough flat. Roll out a little larger if necessary. Cut out the shapes, place them on the tray and then bake for 8-12 minutes, depending on the thickness of the dough and the size of the shape you use. The biscuits are cooked when they are golden around the edges. Remove from the tray and cool on a rack.

(Cue music) Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Equus Zebras. Their ongoing mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no biscuit has gone before........

 

Comments

[Judy Edmonds]

So damn cute!!! And much more creative than zucchini! I don't have the patience for this sort of thing, I like to make the type of biscuits that are balls on a baking sheet rather than the whole rolling out and cutting thing, but these are seriously adorable.

[RoseRed]

Well those are way cool! I bet kids would love them!

[sue]

They look fantastic!

[Janette]

Oh they look so cute! I can see I am going to be busy during the school holidays ... again! LOL
Thank you 2paw :)

[Monika]

Judy said it first, so damn cute! :o)
I hope you'll start over with the A-Z cooking next year. I very much enjoyed it, and was inspired to try some of your recipes, or make variations of them.

[pixie]

ohhhhhhhh they look great I bet my girls would love to make them in the holidays!!!

[drk]

i have so much enjoyed your recipes this year, i think ive made about 4 of them! these look great too, so clever. munch munch munch!!

[bishopstone]

woowh they are fantastic. How clever are you?

[deb]

omg they're amazing !!

[Rox]

Way too cute!

[Alysha]

Wow, they sound delicious and look awesome!

[Lois]

My son's girlfriend just loves Zebras. I think I can see some of these coming out of my oven soon!!

[Jennifer Rose]

those are so cool looking :D another one to add to the list to try :)

[mrspao]

They are brilliant!!

[linda]

soooooooo cute, way beyond my patience barrier at the moment but they look divine

[Sarah]

These are the cutest cookies! That biscuit cutter is wonderful and I've looked online for one like it with no luck so far. My horse ones are just standing, not prancing like that!

[marti]

what fun! i don't have the patience for that type of baking, in fact this morning i am about to bag the bread baking because apparently around here, all cookies need to be made with my whole wheat flour and there is no powdered milk where it ought to be.