Rat Year Pineapple Jam Cookie 可爱鼠黄梨球饼

With the approaching of the Rat Year in the Lunar Calendar, it is quite common for home bakers to shape their cookies into rat shape. Using the original butter cookie dough and 2 sesame seeds, I shaped some pineapple jam balls into rat shape.

However, the shaping process was quite time consuming, so I finished the remaining cookies in simple ball shape decorated with some coloured dough bits. Both designs have an equal festive feeling too, right? 😉

Butter Cookie Dough
200g unsalted butter, softened
40g icing sugar
1/2 tsp fine salt
1 yolk
1/4 tsp vanilla essence

295g plain flour plus
10g milk powder
25g corn starch

Filling
300g pineapple jam

Directions
1. Cream softened butter with icing sugar and salt till light and fluffy.

2. Blend in the yolk and vanilla essence before adding the sieved flours and milk powder.

3. Divide the butter dough into smaller portions of about 14g each, and divide pineapple jam into 7g each. Roll all the butter dough and pineapple jam into balls.

4. Pinch out a small portion of the butter dough for shaping the ears, nose and tail later.

Wrap a pineapple jam ball in the center of the bigger butter dough.

Roll into a smooth ball.

Slowly pull out a pointed end from the thicker part of the butter dough ball.
Divide and shape the smaller butter dough into 2 ears, a nose and a tail.

Assemble the parts, draw 3 pairs of whiskers using a needle, and insert two black sesame seeds as eyes.

5. Place the shaped dough on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 200℃ for 8 minutes, and 170℃ for 8 minutes.

7. Let the cookies cool down before enjoying, or storing in a air-tight container 😋😍