Ingredients
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230 g butter (1 1/2 cups)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
200 g chocolate
cake decorations (like silver dragees or candy shapes)
Preparation
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Cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the egg, vanilla and almond extract and mix well.
Sift in the flour and baking powder and gradually stir to incorporate all the flour into the creamed mixture.
Do not chill!
Make a sausage shape with the dough a little smaller than the barrel of the cookie press. Load the barrel and insert the serrated slot shape in the end.
The serrated slot is usually used to make rectangular cookies by squeezing out a length of dough. That's not what we are going to do. Put the cookie press flat against the baking sheet and squeeze until you feel a bit of resistance, then lift off the cookie press, just as you would do for most of the other shapes. This gives an oval shape with ridges that looks a bit (a lot!) like a trilobite.
If you are very clever, make all the trilobites the same size. Alternatively, accept that you probably won't get them all the same size and deliberately make some baby ones and mummy and daddy ones.
Bake at 200deg C or 375degF for 10 minutes.
Remove from the baking sheet and let the trilobites cool on a cake rack.
At this stage, Prof Hart sticks two cookies together with some jam. I didn't have enough time to do that.
Break the chocolate into a bowl and microwave on medium for 1 minute. Stir and then continue to zap for 30-10 seconds at a time until the chocolate is melted.
Dip about one third of the end of each cookie in chocolate and place on baking paper or waxed paper.
Place two candy decorations or silver dragees on top for eyes.
Leave until the chocolate has set.
Store in an airtight container until, as the Prof says, they are extinct again.
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