Today was our holiday cookie-baking day, and we made an all-time fave: Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies!
We baked a million cookies, and we’re still not finished.
As Maddy’s becoming a stronger reader, she has really enjoyed trying her hand at handling the recipe-reading herself. And with this recipe, I formatted the ‘Directions’ differently than I had before, with our muffin-making or fun with that ginormous zucchini.
This time, I roughly followed the structure of Mollie Katzen’s series--frame-by-frame instructions. But I simplified it just a bit, and it seemed to work well.
Recipe Reading: Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies
We love these sweet cakey-cookies, and I (shhhh!) decided to make them again for my yearly cookie exchange with friends.
It’s an easy recipe, and Maddy, Owen, and Cora get a kick out of adding all of the spices. Plus, these iced pumpkin spice cookies are nut-free, so my pals with allergies in the family can also enjoy them.
Maddy’s adding spices. . .Grab the Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookie Recipe
Both the Kid-Friendly Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies Recipe and the Mom’s Cookie Exchange Recipe are here to download.
If you’re exchanging with your pals, why reinvent the wheel? The Mom’s Cookie Exchange Iced Pumpkin Spice Cookies Recipe is a quick, two-to-a-page so that you can print and share!
Because the recipe calls for ground cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and pumpkin–on top of the normal sugar, butter, egg, my kids seem to especially like making these.
Let kids taste along the way!
Every single time–every time–they want to try each spice.
. . . and Cora’s giving the spices a taste.
So I make tiny piles of the ingredients and let them taste each. Sure, every time Maddy, Owen, or Cora tastes cloves or nutmeg, they stick out their tongue and yell for water, but usually an M & M clears their tiny palates quickly.
I think it’s great to get kids familiar with the differences between salt, sugar, flour, and anything that’s safe to try.
Let the kids in on the action.
I slipped the recipe sheets into plastic sleeves so that the kids could write on them with crayon and then wipe it off for next time.
As we completed each step of the recipe, Maddy put a check in the appropriate box, just like she did as we gathered our ingredients before we began.
Our finished products tasted great and looked pretty darn good, too.
And that’s it for today. . . tons of cookies baked, and my little emerging readers got some practice reading and following the steps to the recipe as well.
Pour the milk, put some cookies on a plate, and let’s eat some sweets!
Do you want to take the recipe to a neighborhood cookie exchange? Print out the recipes above!
Check out a few other posts that may help you develop strong and healthy habits for your family:
- wait time
- my day, your day
- frozen peas
- kids who rock the kitchen
- kids who rock the laundry
- rest time
- gem jars
- arm circles
- noticing kids
- homework routine
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teaching left handed kids to write: grasp, stages, positioning
I've just posted about a cookbook that I've found works really well with my 5 year old ( http://www.playingbythebook.net/2010/03/22/nonfiction-monday-learning-to-cook/ ) and a reader recommended this post of yours to me – and it's wonderful. I'm so glad she pointed me to your blog 🙂 I didn't know about the Mollie Katzen books (I'm in the UK and suspect she's not widely distributed here), but I shall seek them out now.