Here is our favorite chocolate cookie recipe with some tips making them with children.
Ingredients for chocolate cookies
- Margarine… 180g (can use butter, but margarine is cheaper)
- Sugar… 1 cup
- Egg yolk… x3
- Baking powder… 1/2 tea spoon
- Coco powder… x3 table spoons
- Standard flour… x3 cups
- Vanilla essence … 2-3 drops (optional)
- Standard flour to use when shaping cookies
This time we used sunrise margarine: NZ$1.9 for 500g pack – very good cost performance!
We used also cost-effective essential brand plain flour.
Baking powder
As for cocoa powder, use 100% cocoa powder without any added milk powder or sugar.
How to make chocolate cookies
1. First, mix margarine and sugar in a bowl. Margarine is soft straight out of fridge, so you can start mixing without waiting for it to warm up to the room temperature.
Starting to mix sugar and margarine
After mixing, it to make an even mixture
2. Add egg yolks and mix. Drop one egg yolk at a time, mix until yellow patch is no longer visible, then add next yolk. If you have vanilla essence, add 2-3 drops here.
3. Combine flour, baking powder and chocolate powder in a separate bowl and mix. Then pour this powder mixture into the bowl with egg-marg-sugar mixture.
Use spoon to mix like you are “cutting or chopping” the mixture.
When it is evenly mixed, use your hand to knead the mixture to make a big mass of cookie dough. The dough should be a bit sticky, hard enough that you can shape them.
4. Wrap cookie dough with plastic food wrap and store in the fridge for 30 minutes minimum. This time can be longer, you can even keep it in the fridge for one or two nights.
5. Knead with kids and use cookie cutters to shape cookies.
Sprinkle some plane flour on chopping board or on baking sheet and on a rolling pin. Roll the cookie dough with the rolling pin so that it is about 4mm thick.
Children can try rolling, but parents will need to finish it as kids tend to leave cookie dough too thick and uneven.
My 3-year-old having a go at rolling.
Then use cookie cutters to shape cookies. Cookie cutters can be quite sharp so watch carefully when kids are doing it.
*If the child is too young, get the child to choose which cookie cutter to use, then let them place it on the cookie dough sheet. Then the adult can finish the cutting.
Place shaped cookies onto a piece of baking sheet.
6. Pre-warm the oven to 180C. (=356F) . Bake them in the oven for 10-12 minutes until the edge and the bottom of cookies just start to turn brown.
7. Once cooked, cool on a baking rack. Cookies are soft when warm, but hardens when cooled.
Alternative recipe: Without cocoa to make plane cookies
You can always omit cocoa powder from above recipe to make plain cookies. In this case, I highly recommend adding 3 table spoons of almond powder to replace cocoa powder, which results in very rich flavor.If you prefer, you could replace flour with rice flour to make gluten-free version.
Plain version
Tips when making cookies with children
Making cookies with children can be a very good educational activity. There are commercial cooking courses for children with fees, but if you do it at home, its free!But cooking can be difficult and dangerous for too young children. At our home, my children are involved in the following cookie making processes;
- Make a crack on eggs (cracking and separating egg yolk from egg white is done by an adult)
- Mix margarine and sugar with a spoon
- Try scooping cocoa powder with a table spoon and put in a bowl (if they make a mistake and the amount of cocoa is more or less than supposed to…. minimal effect! No problem!)
- Kneading cookie dough and shaping cookies <- Kids enjoy this the most!
There are also some tips for making the whole experience easy for the adult:
- Have all ingredients measured and prepared before starting cooking
- Have tools like bowls, spoons, baking sheet, all ready on the bench before starting cooking
- Place newspapers or scrap papers on the floor and do cooking on the paper (this way, it is easy to clean when spillage happen)
- Be mentally prepared that there will be a spillage
Kneading and shaping with little hands!
Instead off doing the whole cookie making process in one day, you could prepare cookie dough (above step 1~4) and let it sit in the fridge over night.
Then start kneading and shaping cookies from step 5 onwards on the following day with children. This way, the whole activity takes shorter and easier on the supervising adult.
Things to be careful when making cookies with children
The ONLY thing to really be careful when cooking with children is their safety.As long as the whole cooking activity is finished without any injuries (like cutting or burning), it is a success even if cookies are shaped funny or tastes funny.
With that in mind, good solid preparation before starting to cook is essential. It is very difficult to go back into kitchen to grab an item or do something when you are watching children at the same time.
By preparing everything before hand, hopefully the adult can concentrate on guiding and helping children.
Be ready as spillage WILL happen no matter how careful you do it. Flour dropping on the floor or it maybe an egg.
Give up on trying to prevent spillage 100% and instead, have tools ready for cleaning afterwards. Whether it is flour or egg or margarine, nothing is toxic, so simple sweeping and wiping would easily do the trick.
If you place news papers or other scrap papers on the floor and work on them, it makes it easier when tidying up.
Baking in an oven should always be done by an adult, and be careful that children do not come anywhere near the hot oven, oven plate or freshly baked hot cookies.
If you do cookie making on a dining chair and table, children may fall from the chair or children may drop items on the floor. This can be dangerous.
So I recommend that you place papers on the floor and do mixing work on the floor, or alternatively use a coffee table.
Summary on Making cookies with kids
Cookie making can be a real fun, special experience for children. My children have been helping me shape cookies since they were 2-year old, and still enjoy it at school-age.The whole house smells really nice of baking, creating very happy environment. And of course, freshly baked home-made cookies always taste the best!!
＜*For cute cookie cutters in NZ at a bargain price, checkout Fishpond.co.nz below!*>
Dinosaur Cookie Cutter Set
Ninjabread Men Cookie Biscuit Cutters - 3 Pcs
