The Walking Dead Zombie Cookies
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Makes about 18 cookies (15 large, 3 small "kids", although this depends on the size of cutter you use)
- 170g/6ozs butter, softened
- 280g/10 ozs white caster superfine sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 360g/12ozs all-purpose flour
- green and black food gel colour
You will also need a gingerbread man cutter
To decorate
- White fondant and colouring gels
- Red, brown, yellow, green, blue and pink icing colour pens
Step 1: In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and almond and lemon extracts. Stir in the flour and then the colours. Roll into two large balls, flatten and wrap each in cling wrap and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight but take it out ahead of time to let it become more rollable).
Step 2:Preheat oven to 200C/400 F. Roll out dough on floured surface 1/3 inch thick, I prefer these a bit thicker so that they are sturdy. Dipping your cutter in the flour, cut out man shapes. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper. Because they are zombies you can cut off heads and place them in the crook of the arms so that they look like they're carrying their own heads.
You should also raise the arms gently because apparently zombies don't stroll like the rest of us and hold their arms up. Tilt some heads to the side too. Refrigerate the cut out dough for 15 minutes-this will help them keep their shape.
Step 3: Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
Step 4: This is what us bakers and cookie lovers live for-the decorating! I made sure to set up all of the bits and pieces that I needed. These include a non stick board to roll on, a non stick rolling pin, the fondant and gels, gloves, a glass of water, a trash bin and anything that will help you do patterns on the "clothes" which includes toothpicks, pointy ended chopsticks or a ravioli rotary cutter. Now's the time to get into a seriously trashy 80's movie because decorating this many cookies takes at least 1.5-2 hours.
Step 5: I always do anything with white first as the coloured gels do tend to mark white fondant much in the same way that wearing a white dress will attract red wine or shark blood (don't ask). I cut out the clothes by rolling out the fondant colours and then cut out the shape with the same cookie cutter. Don't forget that raggedy edges are good and ugly and messy and dirty are good in the zombie world (or so I hear). Adhere the clothes to the cookies using a little water from the glass. Bite a bit off the arm and then draw some blood on the cut.
Step 6: The most fun was doing the faces. Think bulging eyes and red eye veins. To do the red eye veins, squeeze out some red gel and using a toothpick, feather little veins on each eye. Do things like crooked teeth, blood (you'll use loads of the red icing pen) and eyes dropping out of sockets.
To store the cookies, once completely dry, place in an airtight container between layers of parchment and get some desiccant packets that you get with items like dried nori, biscuits etc and allow the desiccant to soak up any moisture. You can even use cubes of bread to do so too.