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Friday, April 6, 2012

Purple Sweet Potato Bunny Cookies

A smile appeared upon her face as if she'd taken it directly from her handbag and pinned it there. 

 ~Loma Chandler

I was torn between doing a French Fridays with Dorie post and one about these purple bunnies, and was still undecided at 3pm today, already a Friday. Then quite suddenly, I stumbled upon an article over at Tiny Buddha entitled "51 Things That Will Make You Smile".  As I went through the list of things that will supposedly put a smile on your face, I paused (naturally) at No. 18, which suggested that you "Bake something that has a silly face on it". Alas Dorie lost this week, these bunnies won.


Now you all know my love for purple sweet potatoes....and it's been a while since I've made up a recipe using this wonderfully-hued ingredient. It wasn't my original intention to make cookies today but while I was rummaging through my baking cabinet, a pair of really cute cookie cutters fell out. They were Miffy bunny cutters I had bought a while back and just forgot about. Yes, I know....other people buy dresses, stash them in their wardrobe with their price tags still on and proceed to forget all about them. I do the same, not with dresses but purchasing too many baking tools and accessories that I don't often use.


I posted pictures of these purple cookies on Instagram and several people immediately asked for the recipe. Who am I to disappoint? Especially during the Easter weekend when bunnies somehow become more relevant and show up just about everywhere. By that, I mean edible bunnies, mostly in the form of chocolate. None are purple in color, I suspect, until these came along :).

Now have a good look at these bunnies and tell me, do they not make you smile? 



It's been a while since I posted a TED Talks video but here's a magical one that tells a beautiful story using augmented reality technology. It's thoroughly entertaining but I also think what he's saying applies to bloggers as well as magicians. If you're as fascinated by it as I was, I'm pretty sure you'll be smiling by the end of it :).



Have a lovely Easter!


Purple Sweet Potato Bunny Cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg powder
5 oz butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup cooked (steamed or boiled) and mashed purple sweet potato

Method: 
1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Whisk the flour, salt and nutmeg together in a bowl.
2. In another bowl, whisk the butter and sugar on medium speed until creamy. Add the vanilla extract and cooled, mashed purple sweet potato. Mix until smooth.
3. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the flour in two additions. You can adjust the consistency of the dough with extra flour  if necessary. The dough needs to clump together and pull away from the sides of the bowl, but not be sticky (something like a pie crust consistency).
4. Scrape the dough onto a flour surface and roll flat to about 1cm (1/2 inch) thickness. Cut out desired shapes using cookies cutters, and place shapes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or silicone mat.
5. Bake cookies for 15 minutes, but be careful they don't turn brown. Remove tray from the oven and cool the cookies on racks for at least 10-15 minutes before eating. They will firm up upon cooling and are best consumed on the day of baking. 

25 comments:

  1. Such a bunch of cute and beautiful bunny cookies! My nieces will adore them and not willing to eat them i am sure!

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  2. Maya - you and your cookies made me smile at 7:52 AM on this Friday morning that I have off from work (yeah). They are too cute - my daughter said to tell you she liked them too.
    And kids do take us to the extreme, don't they? One second they make you want to pull out your hair and five minutes later you have a hard time remembering why you were ever upset :-)

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  3. It's Miffy! Awwww! :) I love her.
    Anyways! I never had sweet potato cookies, much less purple ones, and they look fantastic. Beautiful recipe!

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  4. Even though I love your French Fridays with Dorie posts I am glad you posted this..those bunnies look so cute! Great idea, Maya! Thank you for sharing and have a lovely Weekend!

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  5. They sure put a smile on my face. I think you did a little magic here with these little cuties. I have a hard time finding those purple sweet potatoes, now I really have to make it out your way. Wishing you and the family a Happy Easter.
    -Gina-

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  6. Maya, These adorable bunny cookies put a much needed smile on my face. The photos of your kids did too, the last one cracks me up:)
    I've loved all of your purple sweet potato treats, for the color and the constant unique creations. I subscribe to Tiny Buddha, but missed that post so I'll stop by. Now I'm going to watch the video, love those too.

    Have a great weekend:)

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  7. These are irresistibly adorable! Put a smile on my face too. Happy bunny weekend to you and your family :-)

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  8. AHHH, Bunnies win! Bunnies 10 Dorie 0..LOL!
    Love the bunnies, especially their color;-)

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  9. Those cookies are ridiculous cute!!And your photography is amazing. :) Thanks for sharing.

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  10. What a crazy bunch you are. Bet hanging out with you is fun! And get your daughter away from that shady bearded guy - he looks like quite the party animal!

    Miffy! LOL Maya there are not many too cutesy patootesy things I can handle - but Miffy is one of them! ;)

    The colour works perfectly, here.

    Cheers me darlin'

    Tobias

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  11. I love these purple bunnies. what a great idea to use sweet potatoes!

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  12. Gosh, as soon as I saw these on Instagram, I was all "woah..." So damn cool. Want!!

    Habbby Easter!

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  13. Oh my gosh these cookies are just adorable!!!!! What a great use of sweet potatoes.

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  14. Well, both the cookies and your boys made me smile. Your kids are adorable!

    How come I can never make cookies look this perfect? Love the color from the sweet potatoes.

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  15. Hi! lovely cookies..definitely one of a kind! Visit me back yea!

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  16. They are the absolute cutest!!! And I do what you do also ... forget about cooking things and blog props. It's a sickness, I tell ya!

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  17. beautiful cute cookies looks wonderful

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  18. Maya, the flowers caught my attention again. Match with the cookies' color!

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  19. As much as like Dorie, I'm down with kicking her to the curb in place of happy fluffy PURPLE bunnies!

    And this is a twofer! Awesome TED talk :)

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  20. Maya, these must be the cutest Miffy cookies I have ever seen, ever! Did you get the cookie cutters from the Netherlands - just because there are ever present there...but never nearly as adorable as your cookies!

    This time, I did not hit the "comment" button in the middle of the sentence...

    I would like to add that you made the most kind comments on some of my posts - a great big Thank You!

    Take care and if and when you run your next marathon in Bonn, please let me know so that I can bake those cookies for you...

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