Cookie dough “clay” will sweeten your Valentine’s day – or any other day of the year. It’s a fun sculpting project that ends up with cookies to give to family and friends.
What you”ll need:
- A grown-up to help kids bake!
- Sugar cookie dough. Super easy to buy a tube of ready-to-bake dough at the grocery store, or a bag of sugar cookie mix, or make your own from scratch to go fully organic.
- Red coloring. But please – don’t use regular “red food coloring.” The standard Red Dye #40 is a well-documented factor in hyperactivity and all sorts of allergic reactions. Do your kids a favor and buy a bottle of Beet Powder at your local health food store. Beet Powder won’t change any cookie flavors, and is not only safe, but actually full of health benefits.
- Waxed paper and some white flour
- Optional: Some wooden “treat sticks” (otherwise known as popsicle sticks)
What to do:
1. Divide the cookie dough into 3 balls.
- Leave one ball plain.
- Mix a bit of red coloring into the second ball to turn it light pink. Go slowly – add a bit of coloring at a time and squeeze the dough with clean hands.
- Mix more red coloring into the third ball to make a darker pink.
Put all 3 balls of cookie dough into a plastic bag and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour, or more.
2. Sprinkle flour onto waxed paper and roll some dough into a long snake about as thick as a pencil. Bend the dough into a heart shape. Fill in the center of the heart with other dough colors – rolled into snakes, smushed in as dots, or whatever each young artist wants.
3. The adult helper can carefully move the finished dough heart onto a greased cookie sheet. If you want a cookie-on-a-stick, just slip a clean wooden treat stick under the bottom of the dough heart and press gently. Bake at 350 degrees for 7 – 8 minutes. Move cookies to a rack and cool completely.
Sculpting with clay is a wonderful activity for kids of all ages.