Kids love making cookie-cutter cookies.
The holidays provide a great opportunity to teach your kids bake. Working in the kitchen together also allows you to spend quality time with your kids. Choose simple, festive recipes that the children will enjoy making as much as they will enjoy eating them. If working with young children, make sure parents, not the kids, are the only ones who go near the oven.
Christmas M&M Cookies
For Christmas M&M cookies you'll need 1 cup shortening, 1 cup brown sugar, ½ cup granulated sugar, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, two eggs, 2¼ cups flour, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 teaspoon salt and 1½ cups red and green M&Ms. Cream the sugars, eggs, vanilla and shortening and set them aside. Next, mix the dry ingredients then combine the dry mixture with the creamed mixture. Scoop up about 1 tablespoon of dough and drop it on a cookie sheet. Use a fork to flatten it. Decorate the top with M&Ms. Baked for 10 to 12 minutes at 375 degree Fahrenheit.
Easter Bird's Nexts
Celebrate Easter with your kids by making Easter bird's nests. Ingredients include 1/3 cup butterscotch morsels, 1 cup chow-mein noodles and egg shaped candies such as jelly beans or chocolate eggs. In a microwave, melt the butterscotch morsels. Stir the chow-mein noodles into the melted morsels. On wax paper, shape the mixture into a circle then using a large spoon make an indention in the center of the circle. Allow the nest to harden before adding egg shaped candies. (Reference 4)
Fourth of July Ice Cream Sandwiches
Super easy to make, ice cream sandwiches make a great, cold treat for kids on the Fourth of July. Let kids choose their favorite cookies, such as thin chocolate wafers, gingersnaps, snickerdoodles or pecan sandies and their favorite flavor of ice cream. Chill a waxed lined cookie sheet in the freeze. Sandwich slightly softened ice cream between two cookies and set it on the tray in the freezer so it doesn't melt. Kids can eat the ice cream sandwiches immediately or they can wrap them in plastic wrap to save them for later.
Halloween Black Cat Cookies
Get kids in the Halloween spirit by baking black cat cookies together. You need 1 cup butter, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup brown sugar, two eggs, 1 cup baking cocoa, 3 teaspoons vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 3½ cups flour, candy corn and red hot cinnamon candies. Mix butter, sugars, eggs, cocoa and vanilla together until smooth. Add baking powder, baking soda and flour. Mix well. Roll the dough into balls and set them on a cookie sheet. Use a glass to flatten the balls. Pinch the top of each cookie to form cat ears. Give the cookie whiskers by pressing a fork into each side of the cookie's face. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove them from the oven and decorate them. Use two candy corns to make the eyes and a red hot cinnamon candy for the nose.
Tags: cookie sheet, your kids, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, butterscotch morsels, chow-mein noodles
