Homemade Animal Crackers Recipe

Homemade Animal Crackers Recipe

How to make homemade animal crackers that look & taste better than Barnum’s! Made with a simple, sweet shortbread cookie dough & adorable animal-shaped cookie stamps.

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Diet Low Fat, Vegetarian

Keyword animal cracker copycat recipe, animal cracker recipe, animal crackers, animal shaped crackers, barnums animal cracker recipe, copycat recipe, copycat snack, healthy animal crackers, homemade animal crackers, how to make animal crackers

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 6

Chill Time 1

Total Time 2 6

Servings animal crackers

Calories 150

Author Alyssia Sheikh

Equipment

Ingredients

DIY Animal Crackers

4 oz butter, softened (½ cup or 1 stick)
¼ cup granulated sugar (50g)
1 egg
2 Tbsp honey
½ tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp cinnamon
1½ cups all-purpose flour (180g)

For Frosted Animal Crackers:

white & pink animal cracker frosting
nonpareil sprinkles

Instructions

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar together with a hand mixer. Once mixed, beat in egg, honey, vanilla extract, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon until combined.
Add flour, mixing with a rubber spatula to integrate.
Use your hands to shape the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate dough for 15-30 minutes to firm up.
Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C).
Prepare baking sheets with parchment and lightly spray with cooking spray.
Cut the dough disc in half, keeping one half wrapped in the fridge while you work with the other half.
On top of a cutting board, roll out dough between sheets of parchment until it’s around ¼”–⅛” thick. (The dough can get a bit warm & sticky in this process, which will make it harder to cut out your animal shapes cleanly. So I recommend chilling the rolled dough in the freezer for 15-30 minutes to let it firm up before cutting out the shapes.)
Cut out animal shapes with animal cookie cutter stamps. First, dip the cookie cutter in flour& shake off excess. Then, firmly press the cookie cutter into the dough &wiggle it to fully separate the animal shape from the surrounding dough. Keeping the cookie cutter flat on the parchment, firmly press down the cookie stamp knob to imprint the detail lines, then pull up on the knob to release.
Gently lift the cookie cutter from the parchment and transfer the cut animal cracker dough onto a prepared baking sheet. (Be gentle & patient so your animal shape doesn’t tear!) Leave some space between crackers for them to spread a little in the oven.
Repeat process with the rest of the dough, collecting & re-rolling scraps as you go.
Bake animal crackers for 6-7 minutes, until lightly browned.
Remove cookies and let cool for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing or frosting.
Store animal crackers in an airtight container at room temperature for 1 week.
Yields 60-65 homemade animal crackers.

Video

Nutrition