Easter Chick Cookies

Spring is here! Today really felt like spring. I noticed pretty flowers blooming all over, the sun shined brightly, and birds were chirping.

Hope you all had a good Easter! I celebrated by making some chick cookies. I already made chick sugar cookies two years ago for Easter, but this year I thought instead of flat decorated cookies, I'd come up with some actual 3D chick cookies. After some trial and error, these turned out pretty well. They're the perfect springtime cookie.

Since Easter usually involves lots of candy like chocolate rabbits and jellybeans, I decided to make a cookie that was less cavity-inducing than the typical Easter dessert. I found this recipe that makes a nice, lightly sweetened cookie. I love the combination of lemon and honey. Because the recipe only uses a little bit of butter the resulting texture of the cookie is soft and cakey, in a good way. Finally, the coconut adds a hint of flavor and some cheery color. Enjoy!

Easter Chick Cookies
adapted from Anja's Food 4 Thought

1/8 cup (2 tbsp) butter, room temperature
1/4 cup honey
1 egg, room temperature
the zest of 1 lemon
1 cup + 2 tbsp flour
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon extract (optional)

1/2 cup desiccated coconut*
yellow gel food coloring
orange candy melts
black nonpareils

Add a drop of the food coloring to a bit of water to dilute the color. Mix some of colored water to the desiccated coconut to color it, mixing until all the coconut is yellow. It's better to add the colored water a little bit at a time because you don't want the coconut to be wet, just colored. Once it's all yellow, set it aside for now.

Melt some orange candy melts. Use a toothpick to draw lots of chick feet (one long line surrounded by two short lines) onto parchment paper with the melted candy melts. Let dry to use later.

Mix the flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl; set aside for now. In another bowl, mix the butter and honey. Add the egg, lemon zest, and if using, lemon extract. Now mix in the flour mixture with the wet ingredients until a dough forms. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill it overnight, or at least for a few hours.

Preheat the oven to 300°F. Divide the dough into 24 pieces. Take one of the pieces, pull off 1/3 of it, and roll it into a small ball (head). Roll the other 2/3 of the piece into a large ball (body). Place the large ball onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Use your finger to make a small indentation in the center of the large ball. Place the small ball over the indentation and make sure the head is firmly attached to the body**. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Push two black nonpareils into the head of each dough chick for eyes. Then roll each chick in the yellow coconut, making sure each dough chick is fully covered. Place all of the coconut covered chicks back on the lined baking sheets. Bake the cookies for about 16 minutes, until the cookies are lightly browned. Let cool on the baking sheets.

Once the cookies are cooled, it's time to finish decorating them. Take a toothpick a carefully brush away the coconut covering the chick cookie eyes. Also, brush off coconut a little bit below the eyes to make a smooth space to put the beaks. Melt some orange candy melts. To make the beaks, use a toothpick to spread a little dab of melted candy in the smooth spots you just cleared off and pull away from the cookies so the candy forms a point.

Take two candy feet. Place them about 1cm apart on a piece of parchment. Dab each foot with some melted candy and then press a chick cookie on top of both feet, with a little bit sticking out. Repeat with the other cookies and let them dry. If necessary, hold the cookie upside down and add some more melted candy to better hold the feet in place. Then replace on the parchment paper to dry.

Makes 24 cookies

*The desiccated coconut I used was very fine and unsweetened. If you can't find finely shredded coconut, take unsweetened dried coconut and grind it up in a blender or a food processor.

**Btw, if the heads are either not centered or firmly attached to the body, above, this is what happens :'(

Note: If you want to make these lemon honey cookies but not shape them as chicks, just roll them into balls and dip them into coconut dyed whatever color you want (and feel free to use unsweetened coconut that isn't as finely ground, like above)