Circus Animal Cookies

The other day I got a sudden craving for an old childhood snack, Mother's Circus Animal Cookies.  These tiny animal-shaped cookies were a deliciously fun treat, owing to their bright pink and white icing (completely enrobed, that's no joke) and sprinkling of rainbow non-pareils.  These cookies were also slightly disgusting due again to the bright pink and white icing that tasted so incredibly waxy and processed that I often felt like I was eating an animal shaped crayon.

So after years of going without, I made a decision to indulge.  I went to my local supermarket ("super", Ha!) and was disappointed to see no Mother's brand cookies on the shelves (I know the company went under but was later saved by a Kellog's acquisition, so they should be available in stores).  Undeterred, I proceeded to the nearest Duane Reade, only to be disappointed again.  No Mother's cookies.

A bit of research disclosed the fact that Mother's cookies (along with many other awesome childhood favorite food products and brands) are simply not sold on the East coast.  Yes, there are some imitation circus animal cookies produced by other brands that I could have purchased, but they just aren't the same as Mother's.

In an attempt to quell my craving, I decided to create my own version of circus animal cookies.  I knew imitating the cookie would be simple enough.  A basic shortbread/sugar cookie cut thin and baked until crunchy would do the trick.  But I also knew that duplicating the processed texture of the icing would be nearly impossible.  So I didn't even try.

Cookie Stats:
Cookie:  Animal "Cracker" Cookies (I used the recipe here), cut using mini animal cutters (I used the animals from the Wilton mini Noah's Ark set)
Decoration:  Glace icing in pink and white, sprinkled with rainbow non-pareils

I chose to go with this cookie instead of trying to copy the Mother's style crunchy sugar cookie (I didn't want to be accused of poor imitation; instead I'm re-imagining).  I placed the above "cracker" from the cookie stats in quotes because this recipe would hardly qualify as a cracker cookie.  It's much more like a biscuit, a glutinous sticky dough and a dense but still somewhat chewy when baked texture.  This recipe uses ground rolled oats, which provides a bit of textural contrast within the biscuit cookie itself.  The plain cookie is not very sweet (even though I increased the honey to 1 Tbsp), so no fears of a sugar overload after they're iced.

I really like these cookies.  I like the chewy oat texture and the sweet glace icing.  It's not the same as Mother's Circus Animal Cookies, but that's okay.  I have Amazon for that.

Daily Monku:  I'm so sick of the midnight opening night movie show time.  It was fun when it was rare and unique.  Only the biggest movies with the craziest fan bases could possibly warrant a midnight showing.  Now, every week there's at least one movie with a midnight opening show time.  I understand part of this is a summer thing, but it's just not as fun or special when it's available every week.