cloud cookies in the classroom

I picked up two cloud cookie cutters through Amazon that we had been using at the play dough table for awhile. After a thorough scrub down, I brought them home and used them on a batch of store bought sugar cookie dough (NTS make your own dough next time) and brought them into school for the kiddos to decorate. Each child was given a small resealable bag that had a small spoonful of unsalted butter already inside. Spoons were brought out and each kiddo got to scoop a spoonful or two of powdered sugar and a drop or two of food color of their choice. In some cases, two colors were mixed...magic! We snipped off one corner of each bag and the children squeezed their frosting out onto their cookies. They were given plastic knives to spread the frosting and a smattering of large confetti sprinkles to decorate with. All kinds of fine motor action going on! The children love cooking and preparing food in the classroom and enjoy eating what they prepare even more!

bake loaded valentine's day cookies

I am a big fan of a chewy gooey cookie. This recipe is a modified version of my most popular cookie among family...the wonder cookie. My wonder cookies usually have two kinds of chocolate chips. For Valentine's Day I switched em out for M&Ms and Sixlets. I also added a hefty dose of pink and red sprinkles. Here's the recipe that you may use. Please note that this is an original recipe by me and should not be reposted without my permission. Feel free to pin it and share it but please do not repost to your own blog. Thank you! 

Loaded Valentine Wonder Cookies 

by jessica wilson

*2 cups flour

* tsp baking soda

*1/2 tsp salt

*1/2 cup white granualted sugar

*1/2 cup brown sugar

*2 tsp cinnamon

*1 large box vanilla instant pudding (6oz)

*2 eggs

*1/2 cup mostly melted butter*

*1/2 cup mini marshmallows

*1/2-3/4 cup candy covered chocolates

*sprinkles

*parchment paper

In a small bowl combine your dry ingredients save for marshmallows and candies. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream your butter and sugars together using a hand mixer. You will want your butter to be mostly melted. By that I mean pop it into a microwave or set it in a pan on low heat and melt so that you have some liquid and some solid. If it melts all the way, don't panic, you can still use it but your cookie may spread more than you expected. Add eggs and blend.

Add your marshmallows and mix in with a wooden spoon then add half of the contents of your small bowl and mix until you get a sticky dough, add the remainder and mix until your dough forms. I like to use a wooden spoon for this part so that flour doesn't go flying every-which-way. Your kiddo will really enjoy mixing the dough.

Next add your candies and your sprinkles and mix away. Many of your candies will choose to linger in the bowl and not join in with the dough. Use your hands to mix those in and get ready to scoop. I used a medium sized cookie scoop which perfectly shapes these cookies to fit inside a pint bell jar or cupcake liner for gifting. I like to add a candy or two to the scoop first then scoop in the dough, pressing it down firmly to attract those loose candies inside before releasing it all onto the cookie sheet. You may also roll cookies into the size of a large walnut. 

If you wish to have your cookies have a little more oomph on top, pour extra sprinkles into a small bowl or dish and dip each ball of dough into the mix before placing on your parchment lined cookie sheet. As a child, any dipping into sugar or sprinkles was a favortie of mine. Your kiddos may love it as wekk. It is very important to use parchment paper, do not use wax paper! The marshmallows in the cookies will ooze all over the place and without the parchment they will sticky-stick-stick to your cookie sheet. In a pinch you can use tinfoil that has been generously greased. 

Bake at 350F for 8-12 minutes. I like mine to be slightly undercooked but a pretty browned butter in color. These cookies will be chewy either way but will burn like any other so keep an eye on them after 10 minutes. My oven is a bit hotter that what I have used in the past so about 9 minutes works for me. The cookies will come put puffy but will soon flatten out and look like a yummy chewy bit of happy. Let them cool, the marshmallow goo will be pretty hot. 

 When packaging for gifts, you can break off any extra marshmallow goo and sample it for quality control. The rounder your cookie dough the more uniform in size your cookies should be, which is why I love the scoop! Place six cookies into a pint jar and add a happy cupcake liner over the top to act as the lid (or place liner over lid) before adding the ring. Cookies go in easier than they come out but they will come out of the jar with a little encouragment. 

Or, stack two cookies and place them on a cupcake liner. They may be a bit large to fit IN the liner but will neatly flatten it with room to spare. Tie a short length of yarn, string, or ribbon around the cookies and liner and add a tag. 

Ta-da! Sweets for your sweeties! 

pot o' gold cookies

Complete with rainbow coating! Well...sort of. This kooky cookie is super easy to make and packs a punch. One cookie is super-sized so don't worry about making a huge batch. One for each kiddo should suffice especially if they each paint their own.

Ingredients

*shortbread cookie dough

*caramel filled candies such as rollos or kisses

*liquid food color

*clean paintbrushes

*parchment paper

*cookie sheet

Start with a batch of shortbread dough and a small bowl of unwrapped caramel filled candies. Shortbread dough has the texture of a play dough so it makes for easier handling. There are no eggs in the dough so it allows for the occasional nibble without worry of salmonella. It's a win-win kind of dough!

 

 

 

Have your kiddo flatten out a golf ball sized bit of dough with the palm of their hand. Add a candy to the center and gently wrap dough around the candy creating a kiss-shaped cookie. Set onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and continue until you have 8-10 cookies at the ready.

 

Fill a small paint palette with watered down liquid food color. Have your kiddos paint up their cookies with all the rainbow colors. 

Return them back to the cookie sheet. Lining your cookie sheet with parchment will keep your sheet sticky-free as the caramel candies have the tendency to ooze out of the dough. Pop the sheet into a preheated oven (375 f) and bake for 10-12 minutes. A little less if you want a less crumble cookie but not too much more otherwise the cookie tops will burn.

 

Allow to cool and enjoy with a cold cup of your favorite milk beverage. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

be my valentine: red velvet cake mix shortbread

 Recipe over on scrumdillydilly!

Recipe: Cake Batter Cookies

This nifty and super easy recipe has much crowd appeal. You can use any cake mix you like and your kiddos can easily help out. Links can be found over at scrumdillydilly. Have fun!

cake mix, eggs & oil

roll in powdered sugar

on cookie sheet 2" apart

bake 8-10 min

Valentine's Day: Barely Baked "mallomars"

These cheater cookies are super duper easy and sooooooo good! I would not recommend them as a giveaway treat, the chocolate coating melts like crazy but if you wanted to whip up a little fun for you and yours, this is an awesome project that you and your kidlets can do together.

You will Need
*1 bag o milk chocolate chips or other melty goodness
*strawberry flavored marshmallows (or plain)
*plain store bought cookies of choice
*2 cookie sheets
*spatula, fork & wooden spoon
*wax paper or parchment
*double broiler or microwave safe bowl
*sprinkles & fun optional

scrumdilly-do it!

Set oven to preheat at 350 F and assemble to goodies.

Have your kidlet place cookies on cookie sheet and top with a single marshmallow each. You can cram as many as you like onto your sheet. I think I got twenty on mine. Any cookie could work, but think smaller rather than large. When oven is preheated, pop the whole kit and caboodle in and set timer for two minutes. I make these cookies form scratch often but there are simply too many steps to simply whip them up. When I spied a bag of heart shaped strawberry flavored marshmallows I wondered if I could make up a cheater batch and this it what I came up with. I used chocolate animal cookies simply because the price was right, they were small and they were chocolate. .

Meanwhile, dump chocolate chips into top of double broiler, set flame to low and allow the chocolate to melt. You can also do this in the microwave which might work better since a smaller container allows for easier coating. Don't let the microwave go too long, it is really easy to burn the chocolate and then it is no good at all.

After two minutes, remove cookie sheet from oven and place on top of hot pads. The marshmallows will have puffed up with all sorts of ooey goodness inside. Use a spatula to gently flatten each marshmallow. Your kidlet may do this part if you think they are old enough to mind the heat of the cookie sheet, otherwise this a job for the grown-ups.

While the chocolate is melting and the marshmallows are cooling, have your kidlet pull out the second cookie sheet and top with a sheet of wax paper or parchment. Turn burner off when chocolate is all melted. Working as quickly and as carefully as possible, coat cookies in chocolate by dipping them and letting excess sloop off. The chocolate will be warm if not hot so this too is a job for the grown-ups. I'm a bit impatient when I do this and strive for simple coverage as opposed to pretty coverage. I plop the cookie into the chocolate and use a combo fork/wooden spoon to drag as much of the chocolate on top as I can. Then I use the fork to bring it up out of the pan, scraping the bottom against the lip before plopping the sticky mess down on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet.

As you dip and drop, have your kiddo decorate with jimmies and sprinkles and such. If you are making these for grown-ups as well, a pinch of sea salt is my favorite topping. Semi-sweet chocolate works too.

After all of your cookies have been dipped and decorated, make room in the fridge for the cookie sheet and pop them all in for a chill. This will help the chocolate set and keep little fingers off of them while you all clean up. If you must, hand over the wooden spoon full of chocolate and let your kiddo go to town.

After 20 minutes or so, enjoy one or two (but not three, three is overkill) with a glass of your favorite milk beverage and count the hours before you can indulge again. Happy almost Valentine's Day!

RAK week & Valentine's countdown

 With this nifty project you can RAK someone AND send them some Valentine's Day cheer! Introducing Shortbread Necklaces! If you are pressed for time, store bought sugar dough will work also, maybe even better but the shortbread is a bit tastier!

The cool thing about making shortbread is that anyone can do it. Write out the recipe on large flash cards and you've got yourself a fun math lesson for yer kidlets! Another nifty thing is that since there is no egg in the dough, your wee ones can sneak all the dough they want and not get sick...well...relatively speaking. Shortbread can be VERY flakey so the more you handle the dough and the thinner you roll it out, the less crumbly it will get. My basic shortbread recipe is as follows:

*2 sticks of butter, softenned almost melted

*1 3/4 cups of powdered sugar

*2 cups flour

*1 tsp pure vanilla extract

*additional seasonings like cinnamon, ginger, black pepper to taste...go to town!

Mix the butter and sugar first, add the vanilla and spices next then the flour. Kidlets can do the first part with a wooden spoon and mix in the flour with CLEAN hands. It is like play dough, they will LOVE it! Once the dough is mixed, loosely wrap it in a floured dishtowel or wax paper and stick it in the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm up. Roll it out on a floured surface and let the fun begin!

Roll out the dough so that it is less than a 1/2 inch thick. Cut out your heart shapes using different sized cutters:

Add your sprinkles and whatnot...you can even have yer kidlets "paint" the dough with food color if ya like and then "punch a hole in the center of the cookie using a straw.

Arrange them on a cookie sheet and bake in a 400 degree oven for about 10 minutes. The thinner your cookies the quicker they bake so keep an eye on them:

Remove from the oven, allow to cool. If the holes have closed up a bit you can widen them using a chopstick. Be gentle. the warm shortbread is pretty delicate. Once the cookies have cooled, thread 2 or 3 onto a skinny ribbon, red & white twine or a licorice whip. Wrap 'em up in a trusty chinese take-out container that has been decorated by yer wee ones and deliver pronto! You may want to make extra's for yourself..these cookies are YUMMY!

Stay tuned all week for more lurvely crafts for you and yer wee ones!