It’s that time of year again, my friend…
It’s Fooduzzi’s 10th birthday!
Wowowow.
Yep, today’s the day we switch from spelling out Fooduzzi’s age to just using a number.
I’ve spent 10 full years over here in this corner of the internet. 10 years of incredible opportunities, amazing friendships, and tasty plant-based recipes.
10 years is a pretty long time to be doing something. Like if Fooduzzi was a person, it would be in 4th of 5th grade. That’s a long time!
There have been seasons where things have been more active around here, and other seasons when they’ve been more quiet. But we’re still here, still kickin’, and still making some really fun and delicious recipes.
Speaking of…
These Calico Sugar Cookies are our chocolate-peanut butter recipe this year! Because we always celebrate Fooduzzi’s birthday with a chocolate-peanut butter recipe:
- 1st birthday: Peanut Butter Cup Muffins
- 2nd birthday: Snickerdoodle Buckeyes
- 3rd birthday: Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cinnamon Rolls
- 4th birthday: Vegan Buckeye Cake
- 5th birthday: Swirled Chocolate Peanut Butter Slice and Bake Cookies
- 6th birthday: Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Bites
- 7th birthday: Vegan Peanut Butter Cup Brownies
- 8th birthday: Vegan Chocolate Cupcakes with Chocolate Peanut Butter Ganache Frosting
- 9th birthday: Vegan Soft Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- 10th birthday: Calico Sugar Cookies ← today’s recipe!!
I saw a picture of cookies that looked like calico cats on Pinterest like eight years ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about them since. So I finally got it together to make my own version based on a vegan sugar cookie recipe I found from Nora Cooks!
As you probably know, I have a cat, a silly, opinionated, sassy, perfect calico named Maya. Her orange, black, and white coat is what we’re trying to recreate with these cookies.
We’ll start out with a relatively standard sugar cookie dough and then divide it in thirds:
- The first third stays a sugar cookie and gets a bit more flour.
- The second third gets a bit of powdered peanut butter.
- The third third gets a bit of cocoa powder
We’re adding only dry ingredients so the textures of the three doughs stay more or less the same. I realize peanut butter powder is a bit of a weird ingredient. But it gives the dough a peanut buttery flavor and (importantly) the right color for our tricolor cookies.
Once your doughs are mixed, you’ll break off pieces and smoosh them together like the picture above. Feel free use smaller chunks of each dough if you want, but I was impatient and went with big chunks, and the cookies still turned out super cute.
Then you’ll roll the dough to about 1/4-inch thick, and then you’ll cover it with parchment paper and chill in the fridge overnight. The dough will spread just a bit, but chilling the dough will help the dough relax and prevent overspreading.
The next day, you’ll cut your cookies (the exact cutter I used is out of stock, but any cat cookie cutter will work!) and stick them in the freezer to chill again while your oven is preheating.
Then…bake! Again, the cookies will spread a bit, but a chunky cat is still a perfect cat. More to love!
Since sugar cookies typically get some sort of icing/sugar coating for extra flavor and texture, I decided to spread melted chocolate on the backs of these cookies. I didn’t want to cover up the cute design, and the thin chocolate coating just gives the baked cookies a bit of a flavor boost.
And like…more chocolate is never a bad thing, IMO.
I just love how cookies turned out. LOVE!! Most people I know IRL knew about them weeks ago because I couldn’t stop texting people pictures of them. They’re the cutest things I’ve ever made by far.
So happy birthday, Fooduzzi! Starting this blog still is one of the very best things I’ve ever done for myself. I’m still saying it 10 years later!
And thank you for being here! Whether this is your first time or you’ve been here from the beginning, I’m honored you’re here. Thank you thank you thank you.
PrintCalico Sugar Cookies
The CUTEST calico cat cookies…made vegan! Peanut butter and chocolate give these sugar cookies their look and flavor.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 12ish cookies (depending on your cutter size)
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Ingredients
BASE:
- 3/4 cup vegan butter, slightly softened
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- pinch salt
FOR THREE COLORS:
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 and 1/2 tablespoons peanut butter powder
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
FOR FINISHING:
- 1 cup vegan chocolate chips, melted
- 1 tablespoon peanut butter
- pinch salt (optional, but good!)
Instructions
- Add your vegan butter to a large bowl and beat with a handheld mixer on medium until smooth and fluffy, 1-2 minutes. Alternatively, you can use a stand mixer!
- Add your sugar, and beat on medium until light and fluffy, another 2-3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed.
- Add the milk, cornstarch, and vanilla, and beat on medium until combined, about 30 seconds.
- Add 1 cup of flour, your baking powder, and salt, and mix again until combined.
- Add the second cup of flour and mix only until just combined. You really don’t want to overmix here, as we have more mixing to do!
- Separate your dough into thirds, each third going in its own bowl.
- In one third, add your final tablespoon of flour. Mix well to combine, but avoid overmixing.
- In the final third, add your peanut butter powder. Mix well to combine, but avoid overmixing.
- In another third, add your cocoa powder. Mix well to combine, but avoid overmixing.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Take the three different colored doughs and form them into small, irregular patches (see photos). Gently press the patches together on the parchment paper to create a calico pattern.
- Place a second piece of parchment paper on top of your dough, and roll the dough out evenly until it forms a flat, cohesive sheet, ensuring the patches stay connected but maintain their distinct colors. The dough should be about 1/4-inch in height.
- Keep dough covered and place in the fridge to rest overnight.
- The next day, cut out your cookies using your favorite cat cookie cutters. You can re-roll the dough to get more cookies out of your batch, but the look will be more tortoise-like than calico! Still v cute.
- Place your cut cookies back on the parchment-lined baking sheet and put in the freezer while you preheat your oven to 350 degrees F with a rack in the middle of your oven.
- Once your oven is preheated, place 6 cookies on another parchment-lined baking sheet, leaving a good 2 inches between the cookies as they will spread.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cookies start to brown at the edges.
- Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. Continue baking the rest of your cookies.
- Meanwhile, melt your chocolate, peanut butter, and pinch of salt together in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave, or in a method of your choosing.
- When the cookies are completely cool, flip and spoon a thin layer of the melted chocolate on top. Allow to set in the fridge.*
Notes
*If you want your chocolate to be more stable (and less melty) at room temperature, you’ll need to temper it. If you want to temper, skip the peanut butter in the chocolate mixture. I’ve used this method in the past, and it works great. Add the sprinkle of salt to the chocolate once it’s spread on the cookies. Otherwise, keep the chocolate-coated cookies in the fridge until ready to serve.
Recipe adapted from Nora Cooks and inspired by a photo I saw on Pinterest years ago!
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