Yes! Baking and decorating cookies with your kids qualifies as a craft. It’s fun, it’s creative – it’s the perfect thing to do with your kids on a long winter afternoon.
Of course, TV commercials, especially around the winter holidays, try to get you to buy pre-made cookie dough and to just bake it. This may be easy, but where’s the fun in that? Making cookies from scratch is actually very easy. Chocolate chip cookies are always a hit, and in a way they are the easiest because you just mix the dough and drop it by the spoonfuls – no need to refrigerate and roll out the dough.
But homemade sugar cookies are exquisite, easy and fun to decorate. Here is the recipe that I like to use:
Sugar Cookies Recipe
Ingredients for 10 large cookies (double the recipe if you want more):
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
1. In a large bowl sift together the flour, salt and baking powder.
2. Cream butter and sugar, using a whisker or an electric mixer, until fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg.
4. Stir in the vanilla.
5. Mix thoroughly to create dough. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
7. Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/4 inch thickness (we like our cookies thick).
8. Cut out shapes using cookie cutters.
9. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake until edges begin to brown, about 15 minutes.
10. Cool and decorate, if you wish (trust me, your kids will wish).
Icing:
1/3 cup softened butter
1 pound confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix icing ingredients together until smooth. Separate into different bowls and add a drop of food coloring to each bowl. Spread on cookies with a butter knife, and sprinkle with candy sprinkles or with colored sugar.
Photo by omniNate
