Playing with the Food VI – play dough

In my endless quest for children’s activities and games, I ended up finding not one, but two real keepers.

The first one is a really good recipe for homemade playdough, pretty similar to the real thing. It’s very simple to make, and apparently the stuff lasts forever if  stored in airtight containers. There it is:

Since the clay has been a total hit with the resident kiddo and eventual visitors, here’s my thought: “she might like to start cooking with mommy… look how much fun she is having with her play dough!”

I had this recipe for a while in my list, and I was dying to make it. The prep is the usual for sugar cookies, except for the tinting part (I found that a little time consuming).

All ready and set, I call the little girl. At that point, I had the strong belief I was going to be THE COOLEST MOM EVER.

Well, the little girl came, looked at the whole circus, ate a ball of raw dough, and just LEFT. No, she never came back – I was stuck with a ton of very colorful cookie dough and a floured table. These are the results:

But I was not all alone! Soon enough my husband was at home to help me:

That’s what you get when you let boys play.

Play Dough Cookies

The original recipe proposes cookies in lollipop form, but I couldn’t help myself and worked freestyle. There’s a fabulous tutorial here, if you decide to go for the lollies. Just be careful to bake similar sized cookies at a time. Besides their super cute looks, these really delivered tastewise – they are sugar cookies after all, with a pleasent crumbly texture from the cream cheese.

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 3 ounces cream cheese
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• assorted colors of paste food coloring
• 24 lollipop sticks (optional)

1. In the electric mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until  light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms. Divide dough into fourths. Tint each with a different food color. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Working with half of each color, shape dough into 3/4 inch balls and for each cookie place 1 pink, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 orange (I used red, yellow, blue and green) ball together to make 1 large ball. Shape into a 12 inch long roll (like a snake), starting at one end, coil roll to make a 2 3/4 inch round cookie. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Carefully insert lollipop sticks into bottoms of cookies.
4. Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.