Calico Cat Cookies

Two things about me: I love my cat Wanda and I love a great cookie. I love each respectively in their own right, but I’ve found a way to bring my two loves together in a fantastically delicious way. I’ve created what I’m calling calico cookies, or Wanda cookies, named after cutie princess girl. These cookies are as aesthetically pleasing as they are tasty and are flavored with Thai tea, sesame, chocolate, and coconut. Which is only right, because my girl Wanda is a certified beaut.

While the combination might seem like a lot, the flavors actually really compliment each other. The nuttiness of the black sesame really goes well with the chocolate, just as it does with the coconut, and the Thai tea (you get it). Aside from these four doughs coming together to make one spectacular cookie, it’s also an excellent base dough to play around with other flavors like matcha, yuzu, strawberry, and so much more.

And yes, it really is important that the butter and eggs are room temperature. I get it, I don’t like being told what to do, but just something to think about! Happy baking!

Ingredients

• 2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 large egg, at room temperature
• 2 egg yolks, at room temperature (save the rest for a meringue!)
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract
• 2 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon Thai tea concentrate
• 2 tablespoons of whole black sesame seeds (or 1 tablespoon sesame paste)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer on medium speed until light and airy, about 2 minutes. Add in egg, egg yolks to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix on medium speed until well combined, another minute.
3. In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, salt, and baking soda.
4. Add in your flour mixture to your wet mixture gradually, until just combined.
5. Divide the dough roughly into fourths (there’s no fast and hard way to do this, just eye it).
6. Make the coconut dough: add coconut extract to the 1/4 reserved bit of dough and mix until just combined.
7. Make the black sesame dough: if you’re using whole black sesame seeds, smash them in your mortar and pestle until it turns into a paste and then mix that in with your dough. If you’re using paste, then great! Just go ahead and add that in.
8. Make the Thai tea dough: add your concentrate and mix until combined and bright orange. If you don’t have Thai tea concentrate, I’ve found that making a highly concentrated cup of Thai tea does the trick (like 1/4 cup of mixture for a half cup of water type concentrate).
9. Make the chocolate dough: take the last 1/4 bit of reserved dough and add in your cocoa powder and mix until combined. If you find that the dough gets too dry, add a teaspoon of water.
10. To assemble your cookies, eyeball roughly a tablespoon of each dough mixture and roll them together (they’re quite beautiful to look at!). Don’t worry too much about exact proportions, the beauty is that each cookie looks different! This recipe yields roughly 18 cookies.
11. Prepare your baking dish and cook until for roughly 12 to 14 minutes, until they slightly puff.

Print Recipe

Wanda and her namesake cookie