12/4/11

Animal Crackers

My version above. Heidi Swanson's version below:
While I don't have kids, was never one of those teenagers asked to babysit, and have been known to make my beautiful niece spontaneously burst into tears, I inexplicably love creating kids-y snacks/desserts.

Exhibit A: The VolCAKEno.
Exhibits B and C: The Leprechaun Trap Cake and Rainbow Cake Guest Attempts. (Okay, fair enough, I didn't actually make these.)
Exhibit D: That time I made 3-D Reindeer and Sleigh Cookies.
Exhibit E: The Organic and Chic Goldie Attempt.
Exhibit F: These Animal Crackers:
I can't be sure, as I didn't have any munchkins around to taste test this recipe, but I suspect some may have a problem with the intensity/amount of ground ginger, though that can be easily dialed down depending on where you stand with ginger.
Not only are these crackers relatively quick and easy (like this post!), but they also make for fun, homemade, holiday gifts.
 This below animal was simply too cute to eat, so we set him free. 
Animal Crackers via 101 Cookbooks
1 pack of extra-large wonton wrappers
1/4 cup natural sugar, evaporated cane sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger Note: You could get away with using just 1/2 teaspoon of ginger; unless, of course, you are a total ginger hound... in which case, QUADRUPLE IT.
1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1 organic egg
tiny splash of heavy cream
poppy seeds
sesame seeds
Equipment: cookie cutters

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place racks in the middle. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl, combine the sugar, ginger, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and cream together.

Cut the wonton wrappers into various shapes using the cookie cutters. Brush the wontons with a thin glaze of the egg wash and be sure to get anyplace you want the seeds to stick. Sprinkle each cracker with seeds and then a generous dusting of sugar mixture.

Move the crackers to a single layer on the baking sheets and bake until the wontons are golden and crisp, 5 to 8 minutes. Don't let them burn!

25 comments:

  1. How come there are no comments yet?? Love your blog and love the whale!

    ReplyDelete
  2. What a great idea! Where did you find the animal cookie cutters?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am obsessed with that little whale! And I want to float a zillion little whale crackers in tomato soup, right now.

    These are an absolute delight.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's quite a collection of kidsy desserts you've amassed! These were great, but I'm glad we released the whale back into the wild.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Super f***ing cute! (earmuffs mombers/dadbers!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. they are lovely! and a great idea

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love love love these cookie cutters. I'm a ginger lover. More for me, please : )

    ReplyDelete
  8. Also a ginger lover! I can see that much being a bit strong for young ones, but I'm pretty sure mine would love them. I'll let you know how it goes!

    ReplyDelete
  9. hooray for animal crackers! these are probably the only ones i would eat.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Someone needs to make a narwhal cookie cutter, or add a horn to that whale.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Colleen thanks! Got the cookie cutters at Sur La Table! though the spraying water I did freehand... I'm sure you already guessed that though. :)

    @K thanks for getting me to Google "narwhal" what a long-horned cutie!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anything dipped in edible gold will always be my favorite kid themed dessert, but these look mighty fun and fairly simple to boot! Great narwhal idea, K!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Super cute! I would 8-druple the ginger at my house.

    NEED this whale!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Glad you released Shamu and that no animals were harmed during this attempt. We would love these crackers. Also, Heather -- there is no need for that!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Cute cute! I like the addition of the poppy and sesame seeds....

    ReplyDelete
  16. Hey, i left a comment hours ago and it's not here! Anywaaaaay, these are adorbz and you should start doing birthday parties or something! Yeah??

    ReplyDelete
  17. very very cute! such a gr8 idea!!

    http://infinitelifefitness.com
    http://mscomposure.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  18. I JUST GOT what you meant by 'set him free'. I was thinking you'd flushed him down the toilet or put him in a fish tank or something, but that's even better and it almost made me cry and oh dear I'm now someone who [almost] cries at the sight of animal crackers being set free.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Love these cookies!! Also agree with K can someone please add a horn to that whale.
    -Jess

    ReplyDelete
  20. Oh what a cute post and lovely site! I just piggybacked over here from Tim's site and your lovely cookie guest post. I cannot wait to try them and have never tried pine tea (but I like retsina so I am excited to experiment). Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  21. i hope you ate all the raw wonton scraps. i would have.

    ReplyDelete
  22. You two, this post is absolutely fetish-worthy and I've been inspired to include it in my Friday Food Fetish blog. If you have any objections, please let me know

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thank you for this recipe - I was a Christmas party hero with my gingerbread man crackers!

    ReplyDelete
  24. These crackers are looking simply great and full of fun indeed...your recipe is very impressive in detailing aspect and this thing made your recipe quite easy to prepare indeed..!

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing from you guys! (Comment moderation turned on for posts older than 4 weeks.)