Alphabet Cookies
These cookies are perfect to make with preschool and elementary age children. The recipe is simple enough for children to mix and the dough, similar to play-doh, is easy to work with. We were able to make different letters of the alphabet and some numbers, over three dozen cookies in all. After the cookies were baked, they were glazed with a colorful lemon flavored sugar frosting. Originally served as part of: Snowy Day Cookies.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (divided)
- 1⅓ cup confectioners' sugar (divided)
- sprinkle fine salt
- 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large yolk only egg
- whole milk
- ½ teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- assorted colors food coloring
Instructions
We start by preheating the oven to 325°. In a medium sized bowl, we place the half a stick of butter, cutting it into small pieces with a butter knife. We place the bowl in the microwave and microwave it for 30 seconds at 50% power. It is mostly melted so we just stir it with a heat-safe spatula until it is all melted. We set it aside.
In a large bowl, we place our fine strainer to use as a sifter. We measure out the flour, spooning in into the measuring cups and leveling off. We want ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons of flour and add to the strainer. We also add 1/3 cup of the confectioners' sugar and a sprinkle of salt. We sift into the bowl.
Into the melted, cooled butter, we stir the corn syrup and vanilla with the spatula. Carefully, we break the egg over a small bowl. We hold the egg yolk in our hand and let the white fall into the bowl. We add the egg yolk to the butter mixture, while the egg white is covered and refrigerated for another use.
We stir the butter mixture well and add to the flour mixture. We stir well with the spatula and then, using clean hands, we knead the dough in the bowl. The dough should be smooth.
We wash up and place parchment paper on two cookie sheets. We set these on the counter. We also place 2 large pieces of wax paper, about a foot each, on the counter to work on, and cover with the remaining flour.
We divide the dough in half, (we have 2 children who are working on this project!), and get to work making our letters. We pull off pieces of dough and roll them into ropes, bending them as necessary, to form different letters. We place the letters on the parchment covered cookie sheets and continue with the rest of the dough.
Our 6 year old and 4 year old are busy with this project and the "letters" range from spelling out their names, to making numbers for their ages, to making "X"s and "O"s to play tic-tac-toe later! The letters are of varying sizes. In the end, we have 42 cookies.
We place the cookie sheets in the oven and bake for about 10 minutes. We want the edges of the cookies lightly browned. We remove the sheets from the oven and place on racks, leaving the cookies to completely cool on the cookie sheets.
When the cookies are cooled, we make the icing. Using the fine strainer and another large bowl, we sift the remaining cup of confectioners' sugar. We add a tablespoon of milk and the lemon juice and stir with a fork. It is a bit thick, so we thin it with a little more milk.
We spoon some of the icing into several small, snack-size plastic bags and add drops of food coloring to each bag to make the desired colors. We squish around the icing and then snip the ends of the bags to make a quick "pastry bag". We also color the remaining icing in the bowl so that our daughter can use her finger to paint the icing on some of the cookies. Each cookie is iced as desired and allowed to dry.
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour (¾ cup + 2 tbsp for the dough, rest for rolling)
- ⅓ cup confectioners' sugar
- fine salt (a sprinkle)
- 2 tbsp light corn syrup
- ¼ tsp vanilla extract
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 cup confectioners' sugar
- whole milk (about 1 tbsp)
- ½ tsp lemon juice (freshly squeezed)
- food coloring
Instructions
What's a kid job?
A Kid job is a step kids can help with, with a grown-up nearby, not one they do on their own. Every kid is different, so go by what your child can do rather than by age. Roughly:
- Little ones (about 2 to 4) can stir, pour in ingredients a grown-up has measured, tear lettuce, wash vegetables and sprinkle toppings.
- Older kids (about 5 to 8) can also measure and level, crack eggs, whisk, roll and cut out dough, and put things together.
- Bigger kids can read the recipe aloud, keep track of the timer, and take on more of the cooking as they're ready.
Steps with a knife, microplane, skewers, stove, oven, grill or hot oil, or with raw meat, poultry or seafood, are marked Grown-up. Kids can still watch those, from a safe distance.
Heat the oven to 325°F. Cut the butter into a medium bowl and microwave at 50% power 30 seconds, then stir until melted. Let it cool.
Kid job
Spoon and level ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons of flour into a fine strainer over a large bowl. Add the confectioners’ sugar and salt and sift.
Kid job
Stir the corn syrup and vanilla into the butter. Separate the egg over a small bowl, letting the white fall through your fingers, and add the yolk. Stir it into the flour, then knead with clean hands until smooth.
Kid job
Line two cookie sheets with parchment, and flour two big pieces of wax paper with the rest of the flour. Divide the dough (one half per kid). Roll pieces into ropes and bend them into letters and numbers: names, ages, X’s and O’s. We got 42.
Bake about 10 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. Cool completely on the sheets.
Kid job
Sift the sugar into a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon of milk and the lemon juice, thinning with more milk. Spoon some into small plastic bags, tint each a color, and snip a corner to pipe. Finger-painting the icing works too. Let it dry.