Hot Date Saturday Night

Last Saturday, Ty and I had a hot date.

This Saturday, Lainey, Brady, and I had a hot date.

I'm a lucky girl, aren't I?

We didn't go to a fun restaurant or play a borrowed Wii this week, but instead, stayed in playing with dough that was totally edible (after it was baked... or before it was baked, too, but gotta watch that raw egg business) and yet totally inedible looking.  Ahh, the magic of artificial food coloring.  

If you find yourself in need of a fun project for you and your kids, try these cookies!

Play Dough Cookies

3/4 c. butter, softened

3 oz cream cheese, softened (we used the less fat stuff)

1 c. white sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 3/4 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

assorted food coloring

1.  In a bowl, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy.  Add egg and vanilla.  Beat until smooth. 

2.  In a bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt (who really does this???  I just plopped it all in with the wet ingredients).  Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture.  Stir until soft dough forms.

3.  Divide dough into fourths.  Tint each with a different food coloring.  The trick is to use good food coloring.  No, all food coloring is not created equal.  A gel or paste food coloring works best.  The liquid drops will just make pastel colored dough.  For a bright, vibrant colored cookie you gotta get the good stuff.  Wilton's gel food coloring works great.  Wrap each color in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.  I just put ours in the freezer for 20 minutes.  It worked great.

4.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Shape colors into balls.  The recipe I have says to shape it into 3/4 inch balls, but this, in the end, will make ginormous cookies, so we made ours half that size and they turned out great.   The kids loved making the balls.  If there is one thing any 2 and 5 year old can do, it's make a ball out of play dough.

5.  For each cookie, put one ball of each color together and roll it into one giant ball.

6.  Roll each multi-colored ball into a snake about 12 inches long.  You now understand why this was such a hit.  Balls and snakes.  More balls and snakes.  Until they were utterly sick of making balls and snakes.  Lainey and Brady loved it!  Starting at one end coil roll to make the cookie.  If you're totally OCD like I am, you may even flip your rolled cookie over to see which color pattern you think looks best.  Place cookies 2 inches apart on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for 8 minutes or until lightly browned.

I saw some that had lollipop sticks baked in them.  I saw some color themed for holidays or birthday parties.  Can't you just picture them all pink and purple and yellow for a princess party?