You can't have a celebration without food. Earth Day is no exception. In the past, we shared our favourite banana bread recipe...bananas should never go in the garbage bin...recycling at its most delicious. This year I wanted to surprise my girls with fun planet Earth sugar cookies for Earth Day to help celebrate Earth Day. This is another one of our favourite Earth Day activities for kids.
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These cookies are easy to make and are perfect for classroom Earth Day parties or picnics with your family and friends. It is fun to learn how to make Earth Day cookies from scratch. These planet Earth cookies are super creative and abstract. I especially love the added touch of the little heart on our Earth sugar cookies. Because loving our beautiful planet is what Earth Day is all about!
Earth Day Cookies Recipe
2 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
blue and green food colouring
for the icing
1 cup icing sugar
2 teaspoon meringue powder
red food colouring
Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large bowl, until light. Beat in the vanilla and the egg.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Beat until the dough comes together. If you are using an electric mixer, the dough will pull away from the side of the bowl when it is done.
Once you have mixed up a batch of cookie dough, divide the batch in half. Colour one-half blue and one-half green. We used gel food colouring, I find it is easier to control the colour with gel versus liquid food colouring.
Roll out each batch to about ½ inch thickness.
Place a large piece of parchment paper on your work surface. This will help the dough not stick. Now for the fun part. Rip the dough into pieces and start patching the two colours together. Press the seams together with your fingers. Keep ripping and patching until you have mixed the two colours.
Lightly flour the rolling pin and roll the cookie dough to ¼ inch thickness.
Use a round cookie cutter to cut out planet Earth cookies. Be totally random as you cut out the cookies. Don't you love what the dough looks like? Totally looks like the planet Earth.
Bake cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, in a 325°F oven for 10-14 minutes. Until lightly golden on the bottom of the cookie. The baking time depends on the size of your cookie.
Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack to cool completely.
Make the icing. Combine icing sugar, meringue powder, water and food colouring. Stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add ¼ teaspoon more water until the icing is the thickness you like. Transfer icing to a piping bag, with a small circle tip, and pipe hearts onto the cooled cookies.
Once the icing is dried, enjoy the cookies. How fun are these Earth cookies? I love how each cookie is different. The heart is an expression of the love we have for our beautiful planet. These cookies are perfect for Earth Day but would be fun for any space-themed birthday party as well.
Earth Day Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- blue and green gel food colouring
For the Icing
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 teaspoon meringue powder
- red food colouring
- 1 teaspoon water
Instructions
- Whisk together flour, baking powder and salt in a small bowl.
- Cream together butter and sugar in an electric mixer, until light and fluffy.
- Beat in egg and vanilla.
- Add the dry ingredients to the electric mixer. Beat until the dough comes together. It will pull away from the sides of the bowl when it is done.
- Divide the dough in half and add green food colouring to one half, blue food colouring to the other half. We used gel food colouring.
- Roll each ball to ½ inch thickness.
- Now, rip the dough into small pieces and combine the ripped pieces together on a sheet of parchment paper.
- When you have covered the parchment paper, use a rolling pin to roll the fragments together. Roll to about ¼ inch thickness.
- Use a circular cookie cutter to cut out Earth circles.
- Bake cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, in 325°F oven for 10-14 minutes. Until lightly golden on the bottom of the cookie. The baking time depends on the size of your cookie.
- Remove from the oven and place on cooling rack to cool completely.
- To make the icing combine icing sugar, meringue powder, water and food colouring. Stir until smooth. If the icing is too thick, add ¼ teaspoon more water until icing is the thickness you like.
- Transfer icing to piping bag, with small circle tip, and pipe hearts onto the cooled cookies.
- Once the icing is dried, enjoy the cookies.
Notes
Nutrition
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