Shortbread owls - a cute vegan cookie recipe

I was off work ill the other day and feeling a bit sorry for myself. I needed some quick way of cheering myself up - time to get into the kitchen and do a bit of baking.

The day called for some shortbread owls - inspired by a beautiful but non-vegan biscuit that I found at Sourced Market during my recent stint in King's Cross.

Here's how my shortbread owls turned out:

The recipe goes like this, and is indebted to a million other shortbread recipes out there.

Shortbread Owls
Ingredients
125g flour
50g brown rice flour
50g icing sugar
Pinch of salt
100g vegan margarine or similar
Vegan chocolate chips or buttons
Almonds

How you do it
Heat your oven to 160C (fan) or 180C (normal) and grease a couple of baking sheets.
Mix all the ingredients together, except the margarine.
Then add the margarine, squashing it through your hands into the mix, then pressing the mix together until it becomes one big ball of dough.
Flour a board and roll out to a thickness of half a centimetre. Take a pint glass or similar sized biscuit cutter, and cut out a round of shortbread.
Using the bottom of a smaller glass - tumbler size is perfect - press a couple of semi circles into the side of the shortbread round.
Place a couple of chocolate chips (I used these ones) at the top of the round and an almond, on its side, underneath as a beak. Then, use a fork to press two lots of three holes into the bottom of the round for feet.
Repeat until your shortbread mixture is used up. If the dough starts to stick or rip apart, put it in the fridge for 10 minutes until it's workable again.
Put the shortbread in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes, until just touched with brown.