Food Finery

Shortbread fit for Coraline

"you know, you could stay forever if you want to... there's only one tiny thing we have to do first"

I absolutely love the story of Coraline. Love the book and love the film! If you know nothing of the story, you can still love these cookies... If you love the story as much as I do you can REALLY appreciate these cookies! My youngest daughter also LOVES Coraline. We recently saw some shortbread buttons that we thought were darling and started brainstorming how to turn them into cookies from the "Other Mother." The other mother wants to sew little black buttons in place of Coraline's eyes. She is not a nice mother.

The cookies we had seen were pastel and gorgeous but we knew we needed to make them darker to properly represent our sweet little Coraline. We made the following recipe and incorporated 2 heaping tablespoons of black powder food coloring. We then patted them out and cut the large circles with a metal cake decorating tip (#2A). Carefully move the circles from your work surface to a parchment lined baking sheet with a thin metal spatula. Once you have cut all of the circles and lined them on the sheets, make the center ring of the button with a metal cake decorating tip (#78) and then turn it over, to it's "tip" and poke the 4 small button holes (careful on both of these steps to press only half-way through the dough). Bake in a preheated 300 degree oven for 6 minutes, then rotate the pan and bake an additional 2 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on the pan and completely on a wire rack.

Coraline Buttons

10T unsalted butter, softened
1/3C powdered sugar
1 1/2T sugar1/4t salt
1 1/2 flour

Combine: butter, powdered sugar, sugar and salt and beat until very light and very fluffy (about 5 minutes). Add food coloring and incorporate completely. Add flour and combine well. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Pat (or roll if you are very tricky) out to a thin layer and cut circles. Transfer to prepared baking sheets and cut remaining circles to form your "buttons."




If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it but be warned... it's creepily dark and eerie (but beautiful and fun). If you don't like movies, read the book... it's fantastic! If you are not a fan of either... just bake the cookies and watch them get gobbled up!

"you are not my mother..."