Kids' Recipes: Cookie Decorating

Among kids' recipes, cookie decorating projects are some of the most popular.

Kids love cookie decorating for all seasons and holidays. You can use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, or you can mold the dough like clay. There are several methods for decorating the cookies that are easy for kids; cookies can be decorated before they are baked or after they are baked and cooled.

When you are making cookies with kids, recipes that feature sturdy, easy-to-roll cookie dough work best. Sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies are both suitable for cookie decorating. Peanut butter cookie dough can be molded like clay; be sure to flour your hands when shaping the dough. If you don’t want to mix the cookie dough yourself, select from the variety of packaged, refrigerated and frozen sugar cookie dough available at your supermarket or through school fund-raising programs.

Before you start, cover your work surface with a plastic tablecloth or a drop cloth. Make sure you keep a roll of paper towels for spills and hand wiping. Set up all your supplies before you introduce children to the cookie decorating activity. Make sure kids wear old clothes or cover ups, because food coloring and other decorations can stain fabric.

When you are making cookies with kids' recipes, cookie decorating is the most exciting part! Many recipes allow the cookies to be decorated before they are baked.

Let the kids press small edible items like raisins, currants, chocolate chips or red-hot cinnamon candies into the cookie dough to make designs or features on gingerbread people or animals. Bake as usual. This method works well for both cut-out and shaped cookies and is effective on cookie dough of all colors.

Mix food coloring into undiluted evaporated milk. Using inexpensive watercolor brushes (reserve them for use with food), let the kids paint designs or features on the cookies. This works best with sugar cookie dough; colors do not show up well on ginger cookie dough.

Mix food coloring into your cookie dough and let the kids decorate with colored sugar, sprinkles, or dragees. Bake cookies as usual. Chocolate sprinkles are not recommended, because they may melt in the oven.

Use cookie cutters to cut out the cookies. With a table knife, cut shapes out of the center of your cookies. Place the cookies on top of a sheet of parchment paper on top of a baking sheet. Place bright colored hard candy, such as LifeSavers, in a heavy zippable plastic bag and crush it with a rolling pin or other heavy object. Fill the cut out spaces in the cookies with the crushed candy. Bake as usual and the candy will melt into a transparent window in each cookie. Be sure to cool the cookies completely before removing from the cookie sheet to avoid burns from hot sticky candy.

Make a glaze by mixing powdered sugar with milk, water, or fruit juice until it has the consistency of very thin icing. You can add a little lemon juice to make it less sweet. Mix until smooth and add food coloring, if desired. Have kids use a pastry brush to brush the glaze onto the cookies. While the glaze is wet, they can sprinkle the cookies with colored sugar, sprinkles, dragees, or other small candies. Place the cookies on waxed paper until glaze is dry.

Buy a variety of colored decorating icing in tubes or aerosol cans at your supermarket or craft store. Make sure that the icing comes with decorating tips; if not, you may need to purchase them separately. Let the kids draw designs by squeezing the icing through the tips onto the cookies. Decorator icing can also be applied to the top of cookies that have been brushed with glaze and dried. If you prefer, you can make your own decorator or royal icing, and older kids can squeeze it from pastry bags through decorating tips.

Melt dark or white chocolate chips with a small amount of milk in the microwave. Make sure you don’t overheat the chocolate. Mix well until smooth. Dip cookies into chocolate and, if desired, add chopped nuts or sprinkles.

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