Holiday Baking with Kids

Blue Snow Cookie Trees

When I baked with my kids, both of them had an egg allergy.  Since you don't want your children eating raw eggs when they taste the dough (how can they resist?) it's safer to use a shortbread recipe for making cut-out cookies.  

Cut-Out Shortbread Cookies

2 cups unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar

4 7/8 cups flour

1 1/2 tsp salt

Simplest Frosting

Confectioners sugar

Milk

Equipment

Mixer

Rolling pin

Tree cookie cutters

Wilton blue sugar nonpareils/sprinkles

Food coloring

Tiny spoons

Mix butter & sugar on medium speed.  Mix salt into flour, add to butter & sugar until fully blended. Dough maybe a little crumbly but push together by hand.  Take out a 5" ball to work with at a time.  Flour a flat, clean surface.  With rolling pin roll out dough to 1/4" thick layer.  Cut with tree cookie cutters and place on baking tray.  Bake for approximately 14 minutes in middle of 325 degree oven or until edges are lightly brown.  Cool.

Wilton Sprinkles can be found at your local Michael's

I never felt that taking out the cake decorating set, with nozzles and everything else was going to be anything but an exercise in frustration for my smalls, so instead we would mix a very little milk, like two teaspoons, with a cup or more of confectioners sugar, and then add the food coloring of their choice.  It should be quite thick, not runny at all.  We would then spoon the sugar frosting on top of each cookie, spreading it in place with the back of the spoon.  Then they would add sprinkles of all sorts on top.  Then my daughter thought of dribbling a second color of frosting onto the cookie while the first layer was still wet.  She liked to make plaid Christmas cookies.  From her novel method came the idea for these pretty blue trees.

Simple and Elegant

 Mix up a bowl of white and a bowl of sky blue frosting.  Frost with the blue layer and then, before the frosting dries and sets, dribble from the tip of the spoon a zig zag of white frosting.  It may take a little practice at getting the timing and flow right. Put blue nonpareils along the white zig zag.  Let dry.  Frosting will become hard in about an hour, and then put cookies in a plastic container.

Mug from Cerulean Blue, cards from My Zoetrope and KBatty, plate from Megan Hart Porcelain 

 After all that work, it's time to relax with a little hot chocolate.  Happy Holidays, everyone!


Jody Lee

www.astudiobythesea.etsy.com