Cookies

Just like many other girls of the 90’s, my cousin, sister, and I were all super fans of Sailor Moon. We incorporated the show in just about every aspect of our lives. We watched it every weekday, collected the toys and books, and ran around pretending we were Sailor Scouts. (Over the years, I’ve gotten into the bad habit where I use names, quotes, and phrases from the original and English adaptation interchangeably, so please bear with me.) In case you’re wondering, I always played Sailor Venus. I wanted to be Sailor Moon, but my cousin got dibs because she was a year older than me. We considered ourselves experts who had seen and done everything Sailor Moon until we took a gander in one of my local video stores and found the movies. They completely blew us away and we watched them every time we had a sleepover. I even forced all my friends to watch Black Dream Hole at one of my birthday parties. Unfortunately, none of my friends were into Sailor Moon and I passed out pretty quickly, (Watching movies in the dark always make me sleepy.) so I think I left all of my friends bored and/or confused. (Ouch.) At least I managed to stay up long enough to catch the girls making cookies. Although I prefer watching the girls kick butt, it’s great seeing them just be themselves. I always wanted to have friends that liked to hang out and bake and be study buddies.

Watching it now, it seems like I’d fit in just fine with the Sailor Scouts. Every time I open a bag of chocolate chips, I end up eating at least a handful. (Just checking them for freshness.) And whenever something I bake turns out right, I turn very much into Serena. “Look how beautiful and unburnt my cookies are!” Yeah, I’m not perfect. Now I’ve got a good butter cookie recipe that should work just fine to make sweet, little bunny and heart cookies like Usagi’s. Unlike her’s though, I’m pretty sure mine will taste great!

Recipe makes 90 cookies, depending on the size.

Ingredients

½ cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature

½ cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/8 cups flour

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon baking soda

 

Directions

In a medium bowl, sift and combine flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

In a stand mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix until combined. Divide the dough in two and flatten each half into a disk. Cover each disk with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Lightly dust a counter with flour and roll out a disk to ¼-inch thickness. Cut out shapes with any similar-looking cookie cutters or make stencils and cut out with a paring knife. Re-roll and cut until you run out of dough and continue this process with the other disk. The dough will become more difficult to work with as it warms up, so you may need to chill it for a short time before continuing to cut. Use a toothpick or skewer to poke holes into the bunny cookies for eyes. If you want to use sprinkles for the eyes, you can place them in now or do it right when the cookies come out of the oven. Place the cookies on their sheets in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Place cookies in the oven and bake, rotating trays halfway through, until the cookies have browned slightly, 10-15 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack and allow them to cool completely. Now they’re ready for eating!

I think my cookies are cute and they don’t taste a thing like Serena’s cardboard cookies. (Thank goodness.) I do try to make all my food with love, so maybe that’s what I taste. Or it’s just the butter and sugar. I don’t expect my cookies to aid in saving the planet from evil like the Black Dream Hole, (These aren’t Chibi-Usa’s hundred fold courage and power cookies.) but if I can make someone happy when they eat one, then I’ve done my job. Yeah, it’s a far cry from being the Champion of Love and Justice, but I’ve got to start somewhere.

 

Tune in next week for more Cartoon Cravings!