Valentine shortbread cookies and blog hop

What is a Valentine's holiday without baking and decorating cookies?  The other day at the library we came across this fun cookbook for kids.  It is fully illustrated and the recipes can be altered to your liking.  The first thing we decided to make were the shortbread cookies.  What's fun about it is that it gives a totally hands-on way of making the cookies.  

Now, I have to admit that I don't always jump on the chance to bake with my girls.  3 girls and 1 mom baking  in the kitchen usually sometimes sets the scene for complete chaos.  This afternoon, Mina (age 3) had decided to take a rare nap and I had some rare one-on-one time with Maisy since Lou was still at school.  On top of that, my kitchen was already a complete mess- who wants to start baking with kids in an already-clean kitchen?  Not this mama.

All you need is 3 ingredients and then you can mix in whatever else you like.

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup butter

All the ingredients go into the bowl at the same time.  Then the fun begins.  The next step is rubbing in the butter, which means you rub the butter between your thumbs and fingertips until the dough is in a bunch of chunky crumbs.  Then you can add in any flavorings you would like.  We just used sugar sprinkles (we shook it until it looked about right).  You can use chocolate chips, coconut, cinnamon, candies, peanut butter, raisins, nuts, etc.

Here is Maisy adding in the sprinkles.

After the sprinkles were all mixed in you need to squeeze the dough together into a ball to get ready to roll out if you are cutting shapes.  You can also just roll into balls and flatten them onto the cookie sheet.  We had to add a touch of water to our dough because it just wouldn't roll out at  first.  It just kept crumbling. The dough should be rolled out on a floured surface until its uniformly about 1/4 inch thick.

Find your favorite cookie cutters and carefully transfer the cut-outs to your baking sheet.  The oven should be preheated to 325° F.

Bake for about 15 minutes.  My cookies didn't brown very much in the oven, but were still cooked through.  You can adjust the time to your liking.

We also prepared the icing suggested in the book.  It was simply a mixture of 3 tbsp. powdered sugar and 3 tbsp. water.  This mixture seemed thin, so I ended up adding about twice the powdered sugar that was called for.  We added a drop of red food coloring as well, then I saw that the recipe suggested adding the coloring with a toothpick.  Oops. I should have read more carefully and the color wouldn't have been so brilliant, but it was also fun to have such a bright cookie.

Maisy spooned the icing over the cookies once they had cooled.  The icing wasn't enough to cover all the cookies, so next time I'll remember to double the amount.  I loved how easy it was to apply the icing compared to spreading frosting with a knife.

Enter a well-rested Mina.  She was ready to help add some sprinkles to the tops of the cookies.

Finally, a taste test!  We had to remember that these are not sugar cookies, they are shortbread.  They have a completely different taste; a more buttery taste.  This made for some happy girls, and some much needed one-on-one time with the middle child.

Join in the Valentine's idea blog hop along with these great blogs:

Mama Pea Pod, My Creative Family, Hands on: as we grow, La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life,  AngeliqueFelix.com, The Golden Gleam, Teach Preschool, Critters and Crayons, Living at the Whitehead Zoo, The Iowa Farmer's Wife, Nurturestore, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Jamie's Jumble, The Outlaw Mom Blog, Mama Smiles, The Mommies Made Me Do It, Dinosaurs and Octopuses, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Toddler Approved, Messy Kids, Rainy Day Mum, JDaniel4sMom, Glittering Muffins, Red Ted Art, Mommy and Me Book Club, Putti Prapancha, Dilly-Dali Art, Creative Connections for Kids, Mommy Labs, De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire, Imagination Soup.net, Rockabye Butterfly, Classified: Mom, Kids Creative Chaos, A Mom with A Lesson Plan, PlayDrMom, RainbowsWithinReach, Living Montessori Now, Curly Birds, Growing A Jeweled Rose, The Home Teacher, A Little Learning For Two, Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, The Imagination Tree, Mummy Mummy Mum, Critters and Crayons, La-La's Home Daycare, Come Together Kids, Tinkerlab.