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Wednesday 11 March 2015

My Neighbour Totoro Biscuits


 I found these cookie cutters on Etsy a while ago and bought them on a bit of a whim. For some reason I find random things I don't really have a need for the best reward for working hard. Offer me an ASOS voucher, or some new shoes, or a nice meal, and I'm still unmotivated. Dangle some plastic Totoro themed cookie cutters in front of me and I will work like my life depended on it. Weird, huh?

But anyway, they arrived a few days ago, and I have been itching to try them out, but thought I should wait for the perfect occasion to use them. Lord knows what occasion I thought would arise that required Totoro biscuits, but there you go.... Then I got a hankering for shortbread and well, this is the result!


 I made the shortbread using this recipe - I modified it slightly as I am a bit addicted to ground almonds right now, and think they are awesome in shortbread. So I used about 240g of flour, and 50g ground almonds. Plus I used zest from two lemons, although it still wasn't as lemony as I'd like, so next time I will use three lemons.

Oh also a few pointers - pop your dough in the fridge (wrapped in cling film) for an hour before you try and roll it out and cut shapes, otherwise it is super sticky and it's almost impossible. And, spread your biscuits out on the baking tray because they seem to want to all join together like weird conjoined Totoros! Make sure you let them cool on the tray for a bit before you try and move them on to the cooling rack - shortbread is still soft while its warm, so you might risk them cracking or bits falling off.

Sadly I don't think I made the markings quite deep enough (I wasn't sure whether you were meant to push that part right in) and some of the definition has been lost in baking, but I still absolutely adore them. My Neighbour Totoro is still my favourite Ghibli film, and probably always will be, and anything with that cute fuzzy forest creature on makes me smile.


Apparently dogs also like Totoro. Or maybe they were just after the shortbread? Either way we are now a two dog family - my Nan is in hospital still and her dog Poppy is living with us for the forseeable future. It definitely makes taking photos of food (and really anything related to food) a lot more interesting. Happy hump day everyone, I hope your weeks have been filled with things just as exciting as Totoro shortbread biscuits!

7 comments:

  1. oh my, how cute! i need these in my life! and i think i could justify getting something like this as i only have cookie cutters shaped like stars which is a bit boring.. xx

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  2. I found them yesterday and they are now on route, will deffo try your recipe with the extra lemon. so excited, thank you for sharing <3

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  3. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    these are the cutest cookies EVER!!!!! and they look super delicious!!!!
    ps did you receive the little valentine's day parcel i sent your way last month? i hope it didn't get lost in transit!! ;____;
    xoxoxo

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  4. Aww those cutters are so adorable! You can't really go wrong with shortbread either, but never thought about baking it with lemon before, i'll have to give that a try.

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  5. This is so lovely. �� I bought my forms a month ago but was looking for the perfect receipt for my son's 1st birthday. Now I found it thank you ��

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