Totoro Icebox Cookies

Since I was a little girl I have always been obsessed with Totoro - so I thought what could be cuter and yummier than a whole batch of Totoro biscuits?!

I took the idea from Diamonds for Dessert (check out her blog - she's amazing!) as she made the sweetest looking animal icebox cookies - so I decided to try out some Totoro ones.

Ingredients;

300g plain flour
240g unsalted butter at room temperature
170g caster sugar
50g icing sugar
2 egg yolks
Few drops of good vanilla extract
Black food colouring

Firstly, cream the butter and all of the sugar in a bowl - then add the two egg yolks and the vanilla extract. Add the flour and mix together (probably best with your hands) until it forms a dough.

Split the dough in to half and to one half of the mixture add a few drops of black food colouring - kneading well until you reach the grey colour you desire.

Next, roll out the plain dough in to a sausage shape (awful diagram 1)

Then, take the grey dough and roll it out so it is the same length as the sausage shaped dough (awful diagram 2)

You then need to roll the grey dough out from the sides so you have a small bump in the middle which will become Totoro's head (see awful diagram 3)

Once this is done, wrap the grey dough around the sausage shaped dough and you should end up with something that looks like awful diagram 4! (Keep a small amount of the dough aside to add on some ears to your totoro)

Wrap the dough in some cling film and leave it to chill in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.

Once it has chilled, cut it in to slices using a sharp knife and lay the slices on to a greaseproof covered oven tray - add two pointy ears to your totoro's and then leave the cookies to chill in the fridge for about 10 minutes.


Once they are chilled, place them in to a preheated oven of 170 (celsius) and cook for about 12-14 minutes.

Leave the cookies to cool on a wire rack and then the fun part begins - decorating!!

Mix up some white icing, and make a batch of black icing using the food colouring - I used a skewer to add the detail to the biscuits.

You'll be left with some adorable cookies that, if you can bear to eat something so beautiful, taste beyond amazing! Enjoy!