Turtle Icebox Cookies

Here's the last in this series of animal cookies: turtle icebox cookies. The shaping starts off like the lion, but then a few more extra parts added. And, there's actually a little story behind these cookies.

Way back in elementary school, my friends and I used to exchange little notes, written in glittery Gelly Roll pen on cute Sanrio stationery. (Remember the days of gel pen collections?) Anyway, each of us in the group had our own "signature" cartoon characters that we would draw on our letters. There were monkeys, cats, dolphins, dinosaurs, and, of course, my turtles. I didn't choose to draw turtles because I particularly liked turtles (because honestly, non-cartoon turtles aren't all that cute... sorry turtle lovers).

The main reason was that I wasn't very good at drawing cartoons (even now, ask me to draw a realistic portrait and I can do it, but tell me to draw some sort of anime character and I'm like @_@). But, I found cartoon turtles relatively easy to draw, just a bunch of circles, dots, and lines. Which, more importantly, means that they adapt to icebox cookie form very well. So I took my old turtle, spruced it up a little, and turned it into a cookie :).

Chocolate Mousse

Anyone out there still looking for a Valentine's Day dessert? Well, I have the perfect one for you! A two ingredient chocolate mousse that's quick and easy, but still wonderfully delicious.

Two ingredients??? Yup, just chocolate and water in this awesome recipe invented by French chemist Hervé This (well, if you decide to add sugar, then it's three ingredients, but still :P). There's no need to mess with eggs or cream. Gadget wise, all you really need is a trusty whisk, a pot for melting the chocolate and water, and two mixing bowls for, well, mixing. The reason it tastes so good is that it's pretty much pure chocolate, rich and decadent. Just make sure you use good quality chocolate and you're all set.

Also this recipe is pretty adaptable. The flavor can be tweeked by replacing some of the water with liquor or tea, or maybe by adding some spice, like cinnamon. Adding sugar is optional (I chose to add it). The mousse can be served in containers of all sizes. I brought some to a get together in little plastic shot glasses and decorated them with a bit of whipped cream and little red chocolate hearts. The leftover mousse was put in plastic champagne glasses and garnished with a dollop of whipped cream and the word "love" piped in chocolate, the perfect end for a Valentine's Day meal.

Penguin Icebox Cookies

That's right, penguins! I loved reading all your guesses and reasoning last post. Now I've got hippos, monkeys, elephants, and Totoro on the brain for future projects :). But, for today, let's talk about penguins.

For some reason, when I think "cartoon penguins," I picture cute little blue penguins, not black ones. But now that I've pondered over this, I realize that this may be the influence of too much Sanrio in my childhood, if there is such a thing :P. There used to be a penguin character named Tuxedo Sam, a little guy with a red bow tie and a spiffy sailor hat, and he was indeed pastel blue. But because I wanted to use my ube powder (purple yam powder), I decided to make these penguin cookies purple. And that is why these penguins are purple.

P.S. Two pictures above, you can see the last animal in this icebox cookie series. Not as difficult to guess as the penguins were, I think :P.