Turtle Icebox Cookies

By tempestteapot

Ingredients

• icebox cookie dough
• 2 1/2 cups flour (will vary in dough modifications)
• 16 tbsp (2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tsp vanilla extract.
• (with modifications listed below)
• 2 tbsp matcha powder
• black nonpareils

Details

Adapted from diamondsfordessert.com

Preparation

Step 1

Vanilla Icebox Cookies

Cream the butter and the two sugars together. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time. Then, mix in the vanilla extract. [STOP here if you plan on modifying the dough.] Add the flour to the mixture and mix just until a dough forms and no flour streaks remain. Split the dough in half. Place each half on a piece of plastic wrap and roll into a log, wrapping each log in the plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator to chill for 15 minutes. [RESUME here with modified dough.]

Preheat oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Once the dough is firm, remove from the refrigerator. Slice 1/4" thick slices from the dough logs and place the cookies onto the baking sheets. [Add sprinkles for modified dough.] Chill cookie slices for 10 minutes. Place in the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then move the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.




Make the vanilla icebox cookie dough until it says STOP (for modifications). Split the mixture that you have so far in thirds and set aside for now. Get two separate bowls. To one bowl, add 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp flour and 2 tbsp matcha powder. Mix thoroughly.

Add one third of the previously split mixture and mix until you get a dough. To the other bowl, add 1 1/2 cups flour. Add the remaining two thirds of the previously split mixture and mix. Now you should have one matcha cookie dough and one vanilla cookie dough.
Split the vanilla dough in half. Place half of the vanilla dough on a piece of plastic wrap. Roll it so it forms a log with a 1 1/4" diameter. Sandwich the matcha dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. Use a rolling pin to roll it out to a rectangle as long as the vanilla log and wide enough to fully wrap around it (it'll be about 1/4" thick). Wrap the matcha dough around the vanilla dough log. Use your fingers to smooth out the crease formed. Cover the entire log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Once the dough is firm, remove from the refrigerator. Slice 1/4" thick slices from the dough log and place the cookies onto the baking sheets. Take the other half of the vanilla dough, sandwich it between plastic wrap, and roll it out to 1" thick. Use a round 1" cookie cutter to cut out circles from the dough.

Take the cookie cutter and cut off part of the circle to form crescent shapes for the turtle heads. Use a big straw (like the ones for pearl milk tea) to cut out small circles. Use a knife to cut each circle in half. Now take 1 log slice, 1 crescent, and 5 small semicircles (4 for the feet and 1 for the tail) and stick them together to form a turtle.
Preheat oven to 325°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Pinch the tail semicircles so it looks triangular. Add two black sprinkles on the crescent for the eyes. Repeat for the other log slices. Chill cookie turtles for 10 minutes. Place in the oven to bake for 12-15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 3 minutes, then move the cookies to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Decorating Turtle Cookies
semisweet chocolate
Melt the chocolate. Place it in a piping bag. Pipe two vertical lines on the shell. Then, pipe two horizontal lines on the shell perpendicular to the vertical lines.