Dr. Seuss's Birthday

When your dh teaches 4th grade, Dr. Seuss is a big deal.  In previous years he's done door decorating contests which I had lots of fun with.  This year they are doing stuff but nothing that I could entertain myself with so I had to come up with a plan on my own.

I googled Dr. Seuss cookies and found this.  I couldn't find neon food coloring but they turned out cute anyway.  I really wanted to do some royal icing decorated cookies and I found lots of lovely examples but the time constraints just wouldn't allow it so I went for these instead.

I used Georganne's (aka LilaLoa) vanilla variation recipe that you can find here.  It worked really well.  I didn't chill it first and used about 4 cups of flour.  Also I only used vanilla extract because that's what I like.

Anyway, here's the recipe:

The Vanilla Variation

from LilaLoa

 

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

4 (or 4 1/2 cups) flour

Cream the butter and the sugar together well.  Add the eggs one at a time and mix well.  Add the vanilla.  Add in the salt and baking powder (which I think I used baking soda this time by accident and it worked fine).  Mix.  Add in the flour.  If you are using the dough right away you can add the whole amount of flour.  If you are going to chill it, stick with 4 cups even if it's a little sticky.  It will depend on the weather, the season, lots of things.  I used only 4 cups and used the dough right away and it was fine.



Separate the dough into however many colors you want and dye it with food coloring.  Using gloves is smart unless you like rainbow colored hands.

Pinch off a small piece and roll it into a ball.  I got about 25 or so from each color.  My purple looks brown in the picture.  It's not.  It's ugly purple.  I should have gotten a mixing chart out but I just squeezed in some red and blue and got a moderately unpleasant looking purple.  I doubt the 9 year olds will mind.

Take one ball from each color and make a ball, then start rolling it out into a snake like log.  Make note of the greasy fingerprints I've managed to put on my counter top from doing this!

Coil it around in a circle and place it on a baking sheet.  Leave a little room in between because they kind of puff up a bit. Bake at 350 for about 12 minutes.  I put the timer at 10 and kept my eye on them. 

The original idea I saw had sprinkles around the outside and while I did that they kind of ended up baking up underneath the cookie so they were unnecessary in my book.  I'll leave them off next time.  It might be nice to dip the rims in melted white chocolate and then dip them in sprinkles if you really want something like that but I lacked the time and the inclination to do it but it's an idea.

Also, after doing a whole tray with the bigger balls, I decided to pinch my colors in half and them put them together in a ball.

I liked the look I got with this better.  More variation in color.

Here's what they looked like when I got done.

They're colorful and Seuss like.  See how the sprinkles are?  I don't like that part but the rest is ok.  Plus I had fun making them.  We'll see how they go over.  And I promise the purple is prettier than it is in the photograph.