Cat Cookies [Recipe]

We've been invited to a pot-luck dinner at our friends house ... they have four cats ... we decided to create some "cat cookies." Since valentine's day is coming up, we added some hearts.

Ingredients

Each Cat Uses:

• One oval vanilla sandwich cookie (We used Nabisco "Cameo")
• One "Nilla wafer"
• Three 2.5-inch segments of a twizzlers "pull-n-peel" candy (NOT regular twizzlers, but the kind that pull apart into little strings.) Or some licorice laces.
• Some white chocolate chips or melting chocolate
• Some milk chocolate chips *plus* more chips or melting chocolate
• (Optional) One "conversation heart"

Other Equipment:

• A cookie sheet or baking pan that will fit in your refrigerator lined with ...
• Parchment paper (waxed paper or foil will do, but parchment paper is really nice and non-stick)
• A couple of zip-lock bags

How to:

1. Put the parchment paper on the cookie sheet, and make sure there's a space in your refrigerator big enough to put it when you'll need to later.
   
   
2. Take one of the pull-n-peel twizzlers out of the bag. (Note that they seem to dry out if left out of the bag for too long, so don't try to do too many at once). Cut it into 2.5 inch (6 cm) segments. Then, pull apart (into 9 strands) one of these segments.
    
3. Carefully slice the sandwich cookies in half. It doesn't really matter whether the "creme" ends up on one or both halves, but do your best not to break either of the two cookies (though if you do break them, they're still usable, just not quite as aesthetically pleasing).
   
   
4. Put the white chips or melting chocolate into a very small microwave-safe bowl and melt them in the microwave. It takes a while to figure out how long you need to do this, so the first time you should have some patience. Essentially, you should zap them for 5 or 10 seconds, take them out of the microwave and stir with a spoon. Repeat. And repeat. And repeat. Note that the chips will get soft enough to stir LONG BEFORE they appear to be melting. Don't let them get too hot (and be sure to check the temperature before letting little fingers do the stirring!) When you stir it and it looks like melted white chocolate, you're ready for the next step.
    
5. Place a twizzer "tail" on the half of the cookie that has more creme and press it into the "creme" a bit (being careful not to crack the cookie!). Then, spread some of the melted white chocolate onto the other half of the cookie, and "reglue" the two halves back together, so the cat's "tail" sticks out. Repeat with some more cookies, and then put all of them into the fridge for a few minutes to solidify for 5 or 10 minutes. If you broke one or both of the cookies, a bit of extra white chocolate glue will usually allow you to reassemble the whole thing.
   
   
   
   
   
6. Remove the cookies from the fridge. Paint some melted white chocolate on the back of a nilla wafer, and "glue" it onto the cookie+tail combo. Repeat with the remaining cookies, then put everything back into the fridge to "set".
   
   
   
   
   
7. While the cookies are solidifying in the fridge, make the whiskers: take pairs of 2.5 inch twizzler pull-n-peel bits and squish them together with your fingers to form an "X". If you paid attention earlier and didn't take out too much at once, they'll still be nice and sticky. If not, squish them together as best you can -- it'll be OK if they don't totally stick, we'll be using more white-chocolate "glue" later that will make them stay in place.
   
   
   
   
   
8. This next step is kind of hard, possibly easier for an adult to do than the kids. Remove the cookies from the fridge. Coat the front of the nilla wafer part of the cookie-combo with melted white chocolate. I found it easiest to do this by flipping the cookie-combo over and rolling the nilla wafer in a spoon.
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Place the "whiskers" in roughly the middle of the nilla wafer, and also "glue" down two chocolate chip "ears". Repeat with the remaining cookies and then put back in the fridge to solidify.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. 
    
    
    
    Put some dark chips in a small zip-lock bag and melt them in the microwave, using the same 5-or-10 second technique, but this time instead of stirring in between, you should just kneed the bag a bit. I usually leave the bag open, and just put the chips at the bottom of the bag.
    
    
    
11. This part is just for grown ups: once the chips in the bag are melty, squish most of the air out of the bag, zip it shut, and squish the chocolate away from one of the two bottom corners of the bag. Then snip as tiny a hole as you can in that corner. You're
    
    
    
    going to use this as a "pastry bag" to pipe a face on your cat. You may want to practice making faces and just get used to this piping technique by doing some drawing (that you'll just toss later) on waxed paper. Draw eyes, noses, and mouths on your cats. Back into the fridge to solidify. Note that milk chocolate chips seem to take a bit longer to harden than the white ones.
    
    
12. If you feel like it, melt some white chocolate chips in another zipper bag, cut a small hole, and squish some onto the back of a conversation heart. Paste the heart onto the cat.