These Bunny Cookies are cute and perfect for your next Easter celebration or a bunny-themed party! They’re delicious with an irresistible buttery vanilla flavor, sandwiched with a rich chocolate ganache.
Bunny cookies are the perfect way to get your kids excited about baking cookies. It’s a fun baking project. So, if you’re looking for an adorable bunny sugar cookies recipe, you’re in the right place.
These Bunny cookies are soft, thick, and buttery. They hold their shape when baked. They’re flat so, making them perfect for decorating if you wish. The best part is that these bunny sugar cookies are a classic recipe, and you can turn it again and again with different cookie cutters for any holiday-themed treat.
Why you’ll love these Bunny Cookies
- These sugar cookies are just so cute.
- A fun and easy Easter project for kids.
- Easy to prepare with simple ingredients.
- No spread sugar cookies: they hold their shape.
- You can freeze the cookies if you want to make them ahead of time.
- Fully customized for different flavors and decorations (see “variation” section).
- Perfect Easter treat sand you can complete with these adorable Easter cakesicles
Ingredients
The bunny sugar cookies are made with:
- Butter: all butter not shortening, unsalted and softened
- Powdered Sugar
- Ground almonds: sieved to avoid any grainy texture. Ground almonds help to reduce the amount of flour to lower the gluten. Almond allergy: replace the ground almonds with all-purpose flour.
- Salt: enhances the flavor
- Egg: a large egg, at room temperature, weight about 55g (without the shell)
- Vanilla extract
- Flour: all-purpose flour
Chocolate Ganache:
- Chocolate: 40% cacao content. Otherwise: half milk chocolate with 30% cocoa content and half semi-sweet chocolate with 50% cocoa content.
- Heavy cream (=double cream) 30-36% milk fat
- Unsalted butter
Equipment needed
- Stand mixer but not compulsory. It just makes things easier.
- Bunny cookie cutter. The yield may vary depending on your cookie cutter size. Mine is 8.5 x 5.5cm (3.3 x 2.1 in).
- A rolling pin. A rolling pin with measuring rings is a great tool to flatten the dough evenly, but not compulsory. A classic one is perfect too.
- Baking paper and baking sheet/tray.
- Piping bag with a round piping tip – optional, instead, you can spread the ganache with a spatula.
Note: I use a perforated silicone sheet and place it on a perforated aluminum sheet pan for best results. You can use a classic baking tray and baking paper; it works great. However, you may need 1 or 2 extra minutes to bake.
How to make these Easter Bunny Cookies
- Cream the butter, add the powdered sugar and mix until light and fluffy.
- Add ground almonds and salt. Mix
- Add the egg and vanilla extract. Mix until incorporated.
- Add the flour. Mix. Do Not overmix. Stop as soon as the flour is incorporated, even if the dough is not completely together. (See picture). It’s important not to overmix as we want to avoid gluten development.
- Turn the dough onto a clean surface and bring it together into a 1-inch-thick disc (2.5cm).
- Wrap the dough in wrap film. Chill in the fridge for 30-45 minutes.
- Roll the dough into a large disc.
- Use a bunny cookie cutter to cut out shapes and transfer them to a lined baking tray.
- Place in the fridge for 45 min at least, best overnight, and then bake the bunny cookies for 7-8 min (you may adjust the baking time according to the size of your cookies) – Bake them until the edges are just starting to golden-brown.
Chocolate ganache:
- Heat the chocolate and half of the heavy cream over a double boiler. Using a spatula, stir until the chocolate is completely melted.
- Add the butter and stir until completely melted.
- Remove from the heat and add the remaining heavy cream. Stir until fully incorporated.
- Pour in a bowl, cover, and place in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours until the ganache is set.
Full instructions are at the bottom of the page. Get all measurements, ingredients, and instructions in the printable version at the end of this post.
FAQs
Can I make these Bunny Cookies ahead of time?
- Yes, prepare the dough, wrap it, and let it in the fridge for 48 hours. You can also freeze the dough for up to 2 months. Then, thaw in the refrigerator overnight. Before rolling out, let it sit at room temperature for 20-40 minutes (depending on your room temperature) until it is soft enough to roll out.
- Alternatively, prepare the bunny cookies, place them in the lined baking tray, cover them with plastic wrap, and then place them in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours.
- You can start the chocolate ganache the day before. The ganache will become too firm to pipe, so you will need to warm it a bit to soften it. Place it in a microwave in a 5-10-second burst until you reach the right consistency. It should be soft enough to pipe but not melted.
How to store the Easter Bunny Cookies?
5 days in an airtight container in the fridge.
Can I Freeze the sugar cookies?
Yes, best to freeze them without the ganache. Wrap the bunny cookies with cling paper and place them in an airtight container for up to 1 month.
Variation
You can change the flavor of these Bunny Cookies easily.
Hazelnut: replace 25g of ground almond with ground hazelnuts
Chocolate: remove 25g of all-purpose flour and replace it with 25g of cocoa powder.
Cinnamon: add 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon to the flour
Lemon: add Lemon zest or any citrus fruit zest
Replace the ganache with a chocolate-hazelnut spread.
Decorate the cookies with royal icing.
Tips
Bunny cookies:
- Ingredients at room temperature.
- Weigh your ingredients for the best results.
- Add the ingredient in the order given. Flour at the end.
- Don’t overmix the dough. We want to develop the gluten as little as possible for this recipe. The less you work the dough, the better your results are.
- Don’t skip the chilling time – the dough needs to firm and time to relax (gluten).
- To prevent the dough from getting floury, roll it out between 2 pieces of baking paper.
- If the dough is too soft to handle, put it in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- If you break the dough accidentally, don’t worry-it’s easy to fix.
- The raw cookies should be cold when you put them in the oven. Don’t skip the second chilling time. It helps them to hold their shape. The cookies turn out better if you let the dough sit overnight in the fridge.
- Place half of the cookies upside-down on your baking tray. It will make it easier to match them up when forming the sandwiches.
- Bake one sheet at a time. It will give you the most consistent results.
- Bake them until the edges are just starting to turn golden brown. Don’t take the cookies out of the oven too soon, or they may get mushy when you add the ganache because of moisture.
Chocolate Ganache
- When heating the chocolate and heavy cream to make the ganache, use a spatula rather than a whisk to prevent air from getting into the mixture.
- Transfer the ganache in a microwave-proof bowl in case you need to rewarm it.
Try these recipes, next:
If you tried these Bunny Cookies or any recipe on the blog, let me know how you liked it by leaving a comment below.
Find me on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest for even more tips and recipes.
