Let's Learn About Colors - The Yummy Way!

*So, as some of you know. I've been missing my battery charger since Christmas. I'm about to the point of buying a new one. So I'm having to resort to using my phone camera - which isn't bad, but that's why some of the pictures are blurry and a little unclear. One of these days, hopefully soon, I'll get back to my camera!

No credit for me with this fun baking/learning experience! I completely stole the idea from my sweet friend, Chrys! I had actually seen this on her blog a few years back when she did this with her boys. She sent me a recipe via her blog the other day, and I came across this fun way to learn about colors and bake some yummy cookies at the same time.

This is a great activity for the older ones if you're teaching them about coloring mixing and the primary colors. I, of course, didn't go into that with an 18 month old. Actually, here's something I've learned about living with an 18 month old...if you're going to make cookies with them, don't tell them until you're actually ready to do it!!!! Right before I put AB down for a nap, I told her when she wakes up, we're going to make cookies. Oh, dear. She cried for a good ten minutes, "Cookies! Cookies!" I've learned my lesson...

I actually do recommend this for the older kiddos (2 and up). AB did a great job, but she's too little to take it all in with the colors, and of course we had some self-control issues with the eating of the cookies...and the dough.

Here's the recipe (thanks Chrys for letting me share!):

1 cup butter

1cup sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sifted flour

1/4 tsp salt

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Blend in egg yolks and vanilla. Sift together flour and salt. Gradually add to cream mixture. Chill dough for ease in handling. Shape balls into one inch diameter. Place on cookie sheet and with finger, make a deep impression in the center. Bake 15-18 minutes and cool 7-10. Then add icing to center of cookie.

Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar

2 T butter, softened

1 tsp vanilla

2 T hot water

Food coloring

In small mixing bowl combine sugar, butter and vanilla. Gradually add water and beat until  smooth and mixture holds shape slightly.

After I put AB down, I made the dough and I let it chill for an hour and a half to two hours, until AB woke up. It was perfect when I pulled it out of the fridge. I let AB try rolling a ball of dough herself. When I looked away for two seconds, she had taken a big bite out of the dough. Yes, I did call my mom in a bit of a panic because this was the first time (my first child!) had eaten raw cookie dough. She said she'd be fine! This was right before the big bite of the cookie dough was taken! I mean come on, look at that smile. How did I not know she was plotting that?

While the first batch was in the oven, I made the icing. Tip: the first time I made the icing, I mixed it with my hand-held beater. Even after the hot water was added, the icing formed clumps and never smoothed out. I then made another batch using my kitchen-aid mixer (a lot slower) and it worked perfectly.

Then I put the icing into six different bowls for the different colors. As I mixed each color into the icing, AB and I talked about the color. However, I wish you could see the pictures of when Chrys did hers. Her colors were much softer than mine. I'm still laughing at how I mixed red and blue...and got black instead of purple.

The pouring of the icing with all of those colors was tricky with an 18 month old. We managed though. After I mixed the colors most of the way, I let AB mix them the rest of the way.

Then we poured them the icing onto the cookie, in the middle where the thumbprint impression was made. So fun!

Best part of all - they're so good! We made almost 30, and they're almost all gone. That was two days ago! I think AB agrees.

For the older chefs: This is a great activity (any recipe is) for following directions and measurement. Also, the color mixing is a good way to learn about the colors. I think 18 months is as young as I would go with making these because of the messy icing and food coloring, but the older kids would be such a good help and love putting the ingredients together and mixing the colors. It's still fun for me to see the colors develop (except for purple!) when mixing the food coloring in the icing!