We've had an epic week of snow here in New England! Last Tuesday we got about 20 inches of snow, more on Friday, and today we're in a white out that's supposed to yield 10 inches or so. Snow days can be fun, but with a baby and a toddler in the house, it becomes torturous as we sit around desperately trying to find things to keep our kids active while we all slowly slip into madness.
Today, I pulled out some animal cracker cutters my mom gave us from Williams Sonoma. The box included a recipe to make the crackers, so I decided to make them with my 2.5 year old. It turned out great with delicious animal crackers, and he really enjoyed it! He loved stamping out the animals and talking about what sounds they make. They also came in a cute circus train box, and Sully played for quite a while with it on his train tracks.
I've included my version of the recipe below. My alterations basically make a simplified version of
the original, because something is telling me Williams Sonoma's test chefs aren't working with a toddler when they come up with this stuff. There was also a spice I didn't have in my cupboard which I substituted for. The cookies still turned out great!
Sully loves to help me mix up the dough. I recommend pre-measuring your ingredients and having everything in bowls and ready to go for your toddler to dump in the mixing bowls.
The Williams Sonoma animal cracker cutters were super cute and easy to use, and I would recommend them if you get an opportunity to purchase. However, you could use any cookie cutters for this recipe, or even a glass for round crackers if you don't have a cutter!
Here we go!
Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
12 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon water
In a small bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat the butter until creamy. Slowly add the sugar until combined, scraping down the side of the bowl as you go. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until combined, stopping once to scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
Add half the flour mixture and beat until combined, and then add the second half. Add the water as needed until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
Remove the dough from the bowl and split in half. I gave one half to Sully and he kneaded it and rolled it into a ball, while I did the other half. Roll it up, press it into a disc, wrap in cellophane, and put it in the fridge for 2 hours. During these two hours, practice animal sounds and play with the zoo choo choo train with your toddler.
Remove the dough from the fridge and let sit for five minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Dust your work surface and rolling pin with flour, and roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Use the cutters to create your cookies, and place them an inch or so apart on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.
Bake for 12-14 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove and cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes. Remove the cookies to cool completely directly on the rack.
Enjoy!
~Sugar Dish
I would highly recommend this kit. It was very easy to assemble, and the only tool you need is a hammer. The kit comes with nails, hooks, and even wood glue. Assembling furniture and other objects is NOT my forte, and this took me about five minutes and was very easy! Then I covered the table with some cardboard and Sully got to work!
