Playdough cookies

This is one of my kids' favorite activities. We've used if for children's parties, and for rainy days, and for sunny days. It's a simple cookie recipe that actually tastes pretty decent. I think it's the somewhat unusual addition of cream cheese that gives it a realistic play dough consistency.

The recipe is not mine, so I'll just share the link. Make just as instructed. I make the kids pick 4 colors. Chill them in disk-shape to hasten the process (your kids are patient? Go see a pediatrician about that, it sounds very unusual, to say the least).

I highly recommend portioning out the dough yourself, to avoid excessive handling and grossness of the endresult. The flower decorations on the table are courtesy of my older 2 children.

Plasticky type placemats help making work easier. Also, pre-cut pieces of baking paper help tranfer the creations to the cookie sheet. Instructing the children to work at even thickness is more difficult.

on the left, that's a grass cookie

Even the 2-year-old is hard at work here.

 Before baking, the cookies looked like this.

And baked: The browning is inevitable on the thinner edges.

You can see dragonflies, snakes, bug-eyed faces, rainbows, and flowers here. It's the mom version of the Rorschach test, so do your best, okay?

PS: You may be surprised at my use of horrible, synthetic food coloring. Go ahead and buy the natural kinds, I won't mind, I just haven't gotten around to experimenting with those yet.
I really try to teach my kids that homemade trumps store bought, and food coloring does play a role in my grand plan, especially when it comes to birthday cakes... so I keep it in the house.

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