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.

Penguin Ice Box Cookies

icebox cookie dough (with modifications below)
3 tbsp ube powder
purple food coloring
black nonpareils

Make the vanilla icebox cookie dough until it says STOP (for modifications). Split the mixture that you have so far in thirds and set aside for now. Get two separate bowls. To one bowl, add 1 cup flour. Add one third of the previously split mixture. Mix until you get a dough.

To the other bowl, add 1 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour and 3 tbsp ube powder, mix. Then add the remaining two thirds of the previously split mixture and mix. Add purple food coloring. Now you should have one vanilla cookie dough and one purple ube cookie dough.

NOTE: Ube powder (purple yam powder) can usually be found at Asian supermarkets. If you can't find it, that's fine. Instead, replace the powder with 3 tbsp flour (in addition to the other flour) and add a bit more purple food coloring.

Place the vanilla dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll it so it forms a log with a 2 cm diameter. Sandwich the purple dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to a 1.5 cm thick rectangle as long as the vanilla dough log. Now use the rolling pin to flatten the sides of the rectangle (as pictured above). The middle should remain thick and the sides should be able to wrap around the vanilla dough log.

Wrap the purple dough around the vanilla dough log. Use your fingers to smooth out the crease formed. Cover the entire log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Now go back to above instructions to where it says RESUME. Except, after the log is sliced, place 2 black nonpareils on each cookie on the top of the cookie where the purple dough is, as the eyes, then bake.

Makes approximately 90 cookies.

Decorating Penguin Cookies
white chocolate
yellow candy melts (or white chocolate + yellow candy coloring)

Melt the yellow candy melts and use them to draw a small triangle beak and two semicircle feet. Then, melt the white chocolate and use a toothpick to trace two wings. Let the chocolate dry before serving.