Oh boy, I love elephants. I don’t know why, but they’re my animal. My earliest memories are my Dad reading bedtime stories, particularly Babar, to my brother and me. I love Babar. Not the cartoons, just the original childrens’ books.
I always picked the elephant stuffed animal when given a choice. I was 17 years old when I had to have my tonsils removed. Volunteers for the hospital made little stuffed animals for children admitted for surgery. At the hospital, the nurses gave me a choice of a dog or an elephant. When I woke up from the operation, I was still holding on to the elephant and the nurses said I held on to it for the duration of the surgery.
In my brief history as a recording artist–okay, really it was one song I recorded on the computer when my husband and I were bored one evening many years ago–, I sang about elephants. Not about love for my husband, not about the despair and depression and the world ending, not about sunshine and happiness–elephants. You get the picture?
Anyway, I was in Sur la Table for my weekly 😛 visit and I saw that they had an elephant cookie cutter. How could I resist? It was only $1.00. And then I saw the mini-Noah’s Ark animal cookie cutters with a mini-elephant. How could I not buy it? I thought they would be perfect for this week’s Tuesdays with Dorie selection–Linzer Sablés. Noskos of Living the Life chose this recipe. You can find the recipe on her blog.
Sablés are a type of cookie popular in France. They are a buttery shortbread cookie with a sandy (sablé = sand in French) texture. Linzers are spiced sandwich cookies. This recipe is a combination of the two.
These cookies turned out okay. I didn’t get the “sandy” texture. I probably creamed the butter and sugar too long. I burnt my last batch because I forgot to set the timer. I thought they were a bit too “spicy” tasting. In spite of all this, I think my Linzer Sablés turned out very pretty. 😛
They are super cute !!
I love your elephant cookies! Too cute!
What a fabulous and brilliant idea!!! I love elephants too… Im just in love with your cookies! well done!
Those cookies loook so pretty! I loved Babar books as a child too. And don’t feel too bad, I burned my first batch. : (
I LOVE the elephant cookies!! Very creative and very cute!
Oh, how lucky that you found those elephant cutters! Your cookies are perfect for elephant-lovers and elephant-neutrals alike! They look gorgeous — I bet there is a huge market for these out there (zoos? children’s birthday parties?).
So Cute!!! I love them!
I love the elephants! Especially those little ones
OH! How cute can they get! Mommy and baby elephants! Totaly original Pinkstripes!
How adorable. Really, just adorable. I loved Babar the books too. I got my first Babar book at the RIF project at school-Reading is Fun. They do not have that anymore (sad). Enjoy your simply adorable cookies!
How cute! I especially like the ones with the baby elephants cut out of the middle. I cheated, and didn’t roll out my dough, so I missed out on using any of my cookie cutters. Maybe next time.
Such cute shapes!! Love it!!
Those are absolutely adorable! I love that you used regular elephants and then made mini elephant cutouts too. So cute, I can barely stand it 🙂
darn.. that’s so creative.. makes me just wanna dive down there and start on my next batch with rabbit cutters or something! too cute!
those are freakin adorable!! such a cute elephant story too 🙂 great job!
Adorable, I love them!
Hello–TOO cute! Love the elephants. I left out the spices on purpose and LOVE these cookies.
Love all your photos!
I really hate it when I forget to set the timer!
Ha ha I did the same thing with my last batch!
You go to Sur La Table on a weekly basis? Really, we could be best friends. I love that store – more so than Williams Sonoma.
Those are definitely the most originally-shaped sables so far! Very cute. Ah, how I wish I had a Sur la Table around here…
Those elephant cutouts are too cute for words! I feel the same way about SurLaTable — love the store. My DH and were in Vegas last week, and of course I had to spend an hour at the local Sur La Table (it’s less damaging to the wallet than playing craps, right?)
I freaking love elephants these are the cutest sables I have ever seen!!!! 🙂
sooo cute! I especially love the flowers with the elephant cut out!
How cute is that elephant? And then how cute is that baby elephant? So much fun…you did a great job…don’t you just love seeing what creative people come up with each week? You would be one of those people!
So.freaking.adorable! I love the flower ones with the little elephant cut out. Love love love it. I wanna do that now. I just need to find a cute little bunny cookie cutter now. Nothing against elephants (Dumbo was my favorite Disney as a kid) but I am kinda partial to bunnies 😉 Glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Clara @ iheartfood4thought
Insanely cute. Great idea to put the sugar on before filling them.
My mom is an elephant person also. I’ve heard that most elephant accumulators want to have the trunk up – means a happy elephant (?) Anyway, these are fabulous cookies. And I think the ground nuts helped the sandy texture of this recipe.
Nancy
Love your cutouts!! Just adorable.. 🙂
So, so, so, so cute! I love cookie cutters- I have way too many! My kids would have been in heaven if I would’ve made these- adorable!
Elephants! They are so cute. Bella, my pug, seems to have a love of elephants. She has a collection of stuffed ones as they are her faves.
Your cookies look so fantastic! Elephants are one of the coolest animals. Did you know they walk virtually silently? They have very padded feet and you can’t hear them coming unless they rustle the shrubs or grass.
Too, too, too cute! I love the big and little elephants. These would have been such a hit at my house!
They DID turn out pretty – they’re adorable! The cookies were good, but I agree that they weren’t great.
The flower ones with the mini elephant cut out are just too cute for words. Great job!
OMG! These are just too cute for words!
I didn’t bake this week. I have a major baking scheduled for this weekend (baking for Operation Baking GALS) so I’ll be making these then along with the butter and sugar cookies and tons of others.
Can’t wait to see what you do for the next one – you inspire me! Thnx! 🙂
Love Love Love these! I love Sur la Table too! These are just too cute.
Those cutters are just too cool. So are the cookies. My Sur la Table catalog just arrived today, so I know what my bedtime reading will be tonight.
LOVE IT!! These are my favorite Linzer Sables yet! Great job.
Oh, my! Your cookies are adorable! What a fun way to make people smile.
I described my cookies the same way you did–just ok, nothing special. I do like the way mine look but I’m bummed once I bite into them. Oh well, it was fun trying a new recipe. We all can’t like the same things all of the time, right?
Oh, how adorable!
Back when I was in college, my sorority family mascot was the elephant, so I have more than a few stuffed elephants stashed away. My friends’ little ones love to play elephant when they visit:)
Those are absolutely adorable – and so original! I think you and I agree on the taste of these. I love Babar too though as an adult I find the story a bit sad. 😦
The story about your love for elephants made me smile. 🙂 Very cute looking linzer sables too!
Love love love the elephant cookie cutter! Too cute. Your cookies came out perfect.
Soooo stinking cute. I think I’m ovulating.
Oh my gosh! You’re little elephants are soo cute! I would feel bad eating them!
So….hope your little elfster person noticed your “happy elephants?!?” So cute and I love that you shared that fun factoid. Happy baking and
Merry Christmas
Lucky you….to have Sur la Table so closeby. : )
AmyRuth
I am green with envy, your cutters are so cute.
Peaceful Advent season
Ulrike from Küchenlatein
Your elephant cookies are adorable! I’ve been watching the current season of Survivor which is set in Gabon (Africa). Every once in awhile they’ll show footage of a baby elephant running with it’s momma. It’s too cute!
I love the elephants! These are so cute!
Adorable elephants! Cute the way you have made a mirror image with the baby elephant cookies.
How cute are those elephant cookie cutters? I want some of my own! 🙂 Great job!
Absolutely adore the elephant ones! And you recorded a song about elephants; how cool is that! 😛
I think your cookies look amazing! I love the elephant cutouts! Great job.