1. Make sugar cookies, cut into leaf shapes. I found cookie cutters on sale (the Thanksgiving stuff is on clearance because Christmas stuff is in the stores already!). (I used ATK's "Christmas Cookie" recipe, but you could use any plain cookie. I was tempted to make a chocolate one, and I still might... but today's batch was pretty simple. I suppose store-bought dough would probably work, too.) :)
2. Make icing. Here's my recipe:
3 Tblsp whole milk, plus more to adjust consistency
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tblsp cream cheese, softened
2 C confectioners' sugar
Whisk together milk & vanilla. With a hand mixer or by hand, mix in cream cheese. Once liquid is thoroughly combined, add sugar a bit at a time, whisking vigorously. Continue to mix it until it reaches a smooth consistency. (For this project, you want the icing a bit runny, which is why I use a bit extra milk.)
3. Color the icing. We used red, yellow, and green. We also ended up making orange, to demonstrate red + yellow = orange. (See? I said it was educational.) Divide the colored icing in separate spaces of muffin tins or juice glasses.
4. While sugar cookies bake & cool, spread out wax paper on a table or counter. Put smocks or aprons on everyone - this is going to be sticky! Distribute clean (best if never-used) paint brushes, and place the "paint" (icing) within reach.
5. Paint leaves cookies with icing. We tried several methods:
a) Brushing icing directly onto the cookie. (This leaves a very thin glaze of color and blends the colors together.)
b) Dropping blobs of icing onto the cookie, then swirling them together with a brush.
c) Dropping blobs of icing onto the cookie with a brush or finger, and finger paint the cookie.
d) Dip the cookie into the icing, then let the colors drip down the rest of the cookie.
Beautiful, tasty results:
So, this project worked for me this week... accomplished many fun things, some necessary things (a friend asked me to bake cookies! Seriously - what a friend!!), and some kind of I-didn't-think-I-was-that-cool sorts of things. Lots of other very smart, quite cool women do things that work, too. Check them out in this list...
10 comments:
Your leaf cookies sure look tasty! Will you share some with me Wednesday? I really like Obi-2's hat, too.
Anya, of course we will! We have additional surprises in store, too, which will have to wait until we see you. :)
Those are gorgeous! The Obi's are awesome artists, too.
The Fabulous Baker Boys did a great job!
Thank you, thank you! I'm quite proud of my little culinary artists. :)
Yay! I have leaf cookie cutters and am planning on making cookies w/my 4 yr old for his preschool class, but I didn't know yet what to do for icing. Perfect! Thanks! :)
Those are so pretty! Thanks for sharing.
thanks! Glad the idea will be taken up by a few others - it was fun!
You obviously didn't inherit your "craftyness"! What a FUN idea!- Nani
We made leaf cookies today! Mommy and I went to Kitchen Kaboodle and bought matching rolling pins. Mommy tried to call and borrow a rolling pin from you, but you were gone. But now I have my own pin that's just my size. I rolled my own dough and cut my own cookies and put them on the sheet. We had so much fun! Thank you for sharing your leaf cutters and the great idea.
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