Homemade Mini Animal Cookies Recipe

Homemade Mini Animal Cookies

There are few cookies that carry as much childhood nostalgia as the little pink and white frosted animal cookies that used to come in bright bags at the grocery store.

This homemade version brings that same circus animal charm into a home kitchen, and the whole recipe uses just 11 ingredients.

The base is a crisp sugar cookie that is not too sweet, and about half of the added sugar is replaced with maple syrup or honey, which keeps the cookies tender while dialing back the sweetness.

The pink icing gets its color from finely ground freeze dried strawberries instead of artificial food coloring. That one swap does two jobs at once.

It turns the icing a soft natural pink, and it adds a gentle strawberry flavor that pairs beautifully with the vanilla cookie underneath.

Each cooled cookie is dipped in either pink or white icing and finished with rainbow nonpareil sprinkles, so every bite has that familiar mix of crunch, vanilla, and fruit.

This is a friendly recipe for small kitchens and busy afternoons. One batch yields about 80 to 100 mini cookies, depending on the size of your cutters, which is enough for a cookie platter, a lunchbox rotation, or a bake sale table.

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A serving is 5 cookies. The dough is soft and easy to handle, and it rolls and cuts cleanly after a short chill, which makes it a nice project to share with kids who like pressing cutters into dough.

Here is the shape of the process before you start. You whisk the dry ingredients, cream the butter and brown sugar, beat in the maple syrup, egg, and vanilla, mix in the flour just until a soft dough forms, chill the dough for 30 minutes, roll it to about 1/4 inch thick, cut small animal shapes, and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 6 to 8 minutes.

Then the cookies cool completely, get dipped in icing, and are left to set until the icing is solid.

I keep a small jar of these on the counter during the holidays, and they disappear faster than anything else I bake. Part of the appeal is the size.

A mini cookie feels like a treat without committing anyone to a full dessert, and the pink and white mix looks cheerful on a plate with no extra styling.

They also travel well once the icing has firmed up, so they are an easy thing to tuck into a tin for a neighbor or a teacher.

Bake these cookies until they are fully crisp. An underbaked cookie turns soft and gummy once it is coated in icing.

What You’ll Need to Make This Recipe

Everything here is a pantry staple, plus one specialty item for the pink icing. Beyond basic bowls, a whisk, and baking sheets, the only piece of equipment worth seeking out is a set of mini animal cookie cutters.

The set the authors use includes an elephant, a giraffe, a camel, a zebra, and a hippo, which is exactly the kind of mix that makes a frosted cookie plate look fun.

For the cookies

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar or coconut sugar
• 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Mini animal cookie cutters (optional, but they make the cookies)

For the icing

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 3 to 4 tablespoons milk, regular or nondairy
• 1 to 2 tablespoons finely ground and sifted freeze dried strawberries
• Rainbow nonpareil sprinkles, optional

A quick note on the strawberries, because this is the step that decides how smooth your icing looks. About 1 ounce of freeze dried strawberries gets pulsed in a small food processor until it becomes a fine dust, then sifted through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds and any larger pieces.

What you want is a soft powder, not a coarse crumble, since it has to disappear into the powdered sugar and milk.

On substitutions, the authors are clear about what they have and have not tested. White whole wheat flour works in place of all purpose flour, but gluten free flour has not been tested.

For a dairy free batch, room temperature solid coconut oil can stand in for the softened butter, though that swap has not been tested either. Coconut sugar and honey can take the place of the brown sugar and maple syrup. Regular or nondairy milk both work in the icing.

How to Make This Recipe

The method is straightforward, and the only real waiting is the chill. Have your cutters, baking sheets, and parchment ready before the dough comes out of the refrigerator.

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the maple syrup, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until a soft dough forms.
4. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6. Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick. Cut shapes with the mini animal cutters and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, then gather the scraps, roll them again, and keep cutting until the dough is used up.
7. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes, until the cookies are just set with slightly golden edges and golden brown bottoms. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8. Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk, then divide the icing between two bowls. Add the finely ground freeze dried strawberries to one bowl and whisk until smooth, adding more milk as needed for a dipping consistency.
9. Using a fork, dip each cooled cookie in the white or pink icing and let the excess drip off before placing it on parchment paper. Top with a few sprinkles, then let the cookies set until the icing is solid.

Creaming the butter and brown sugar for a full 2 minutes is what builds air into the dough, and the maple syrup keeps everything soft without piling on extra sugar. Once the dry ingredients go in, stop mixing as soon as the dough comes together.

Overworking the dough develops gluten, and these cookies lose the delicate snap that makes them taste like the ones from the store.

The chill is not a step to skip. Thirty minutes in the refrigerator firms the butter back up, so the dough rolls without sticking and the cut shapes hold their small ears, trunks, and tails when you lift them onto the baking sheet. If your kitchen runs warm, give the dough a few extra minutes in the fridge.

Watch the bake closely, because these cookies are small and 6 to 8 minutes is the whole window. You are looking for edges that are barely golden and bottoms that are golden brown. If icing is the plan, err on the side of fully baked, since a soft cookie will bend under the weight of the icing.

Dipping with a fork is the trick that keeps the coating even. Set a cookie on the fork, lower it into the icing, lift it out, and tap the fork against the bowl so the excess runs back in.

Icing that pools on the cookie stays tacky for hours, so let it drip. Sprinkles go on right away, while the surface is still wet enough to hold them.

Nutrition comes from the source recipe and is listed per serving, which is 5 cookies.

Storage

Once the icing has fully set, keep the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for 4 to 6 days.

For longer storage, freeze them for up to 6 months and thaw them at room temperature before serving.

Lexi and Beth’s Best Recipe Tips

Two small details separate a good batch from a great one, and both of them come down to patience.

The first is the bake. If you plan to ice the cookies, they need to be crisp and light golden brown all the way through.

An underbaked cookie tastes fine on its own, but the moisture in the icing soaks in and turns it soft and bendy. If you actually prefer a softer, chewier cookie, skip the icing and pull the tray from the oven a minute early.

The second is the set. The top of the icing usually feels dry within about an hour, but the bottom can take up to 8 hours to firm up completely. The cookies are perfectly edible the whole time, they are just messy to stack.

In a hot or humid kitchen, park a fan near the tray, or once the tops are set, flip the cookies over so the bottoms can dry too.

If you want to play with color and flavor, the same technique works with other freeze dried fruits:

• Freeze dried raspberries for a more vibrant pink
• Freeze dried blueberries for a soft blueish purple
• Freeze dried mango or pineapple for a pale yellow

Regular food coloring works as well if you would rather skip the fruit powder, though the fruit versions add flavor along with the color, which is a big part of the charm.

For anyone baking egg free, a flax egg is the swap the authors suggest, made with 1 tablespoon of ground flax mixed with 3 tablespoons of water for each egg and rested until it gels.

More Better Than Store Bought

This cookie is part of a series built on the idea that pantry favorites taste better when you make them yourself, and the same dough and dipping method works with any small cutter you already own.

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Homemade Mini Animal Cookies

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Homemade Mini Animal Cookies There are few cookies that carry as much childhood nostalgia as the little pink and white frosted animal cookies that used to come in bright bags at the grocery store. This homemade version brings that same circus animal charm into a home kitchen, and the whole recipe uses just 11 ingredients.

• Total Time: 68 min
• Yield: 80–100 cookies 1x

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the cookies
1 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
¼ cup light brown sugar or coconut sugar
¼ cup maple syrup or honey
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Mini animal cookie cutters

For the icing
1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons milk, regular or nondairy
milk
1 tablespoons finely ground & sifted freeze-dried strawberries
Rainbow nonpareil sprinkles

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Instructions

1-In a medium bowl, whisk together the: In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt.
2-In a separate bowl, cream the butter: In a separate bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the maple syrup, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
3-Add the dry ingredients to the wet: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until a soft dough forms.
4-Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap: Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
5-Preheat the oven to 350°F: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
6-Roll the dough out on a lightly: Roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface to about ¼ inch thick. Use small animal cookie cutters to cut out shapes and transfer to prepared baking sheets. Re-roll the leftover dough and continue cutting shapes until you’re out of dough.
7-Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the cookies: Bake for 6-8 minutes, until the cookies are just set and slightly golden on the edges. The bottoms should be golden brown. If they are underbaked, they will be too soft once you coat them in icing. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
8-Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk: Whisk together the powdered sugar and milk. Divide between two bowls. Add the finely ground freeze-dried strawberries to one of the bowls and whisk until smooth. Add more milk as needed for consistency.
9-Using a fork, dip each cookie in: Using a fork, dip each cookie in the icing and let excess icing drip off before placing on parchment paper. Top with a few sprinkles, then let the cookies set until the icing is solid.

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• Prep Time: 0 min
• Cook Time: 8 min
• Method: bake

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 5 cookies
• Calories: 108
• Sugar: 10.9 g
• Sodium: 22.1 mg
• Fat: 2.7 g
• Carbohydrates: 19.7 g
• Fiber: 0.3 g
• Protein: 1.6 g