Recipes to Make with Kids: Fossil Sugar Cookies

Hi, my name is Maggie, and I panic at the sight of a mess.

Without thinking clearly, I recently asked my sister, Jessica Hamby, if there was anything I could do to help with her business, Itty Bitty Bakers. She replied, “Yes, could you and Sadie (my daughter) test a Fossil Sugar Cookies recipe for me for an upcoming summer camp we're doing?"

Upon seeing the recipe, I panicked.

My eyes immediately scanned the ingredients list and there was the word I was dreading: FLOUR. But, it didn’t stop there. Sugar. Baking powder. Eggs. Salt..... was she trying to send me to an early grave?

Now, I am trying, really trying, to be one of those moms that allows my kids to create freely in the kitchen. I had numerous talks with myself before saying yes to Jessica and actually doing this.

I told myself, "It’s going to be fine. It’ll be fun! Sadie will LOVE this. Do it for your sister. It’s just a mess. It WILL get cleaned up. Be the mom your kids want you to be. Be the mom YOU want to be!” 

Well, I said yes and we made the recipe. Now that it's over I realize (like with most of my anxiety-inducing endeavors) it was a walk in the park. Not only was there hardly any powdery, grainy, or salmonella-causing aftermath to clean up, but it was an absolute blast to make these with my daughter.

So, the lesson here is:

CHILL OUT AND MAKE THE COOKIES.

Try this recipe with your kids. Most of the ingredients you probably already have in your fridge or pantry. You may even already have small toy dinosaurs lying around (just hopefully not in your path to the bathroom in the middle of the night).

We purchased ours from Party City, but they are also available at Dollar Tree, Dollar General, Walmart and Amazon here.

FOSSIL SUGAR COOKIES RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1 cup of sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

• 3 cups of all purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1 TBSP cinnamon sugar

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Add butter and sugar to a stand mixer or large mixing bowl and beat 3 minutes or until mixture is light and fluffy. 

2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add egg and vanilla extract and mix until fully incorporated. 

3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together. Add to the first bowl and mix until loose dough is formed. 

4. Place the dough onto a clean surface and knead into a ball. You can use flour on the surface and your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Take a small chunk of dough and form a rough ball. Flatten it with your hand until it’s 1/4 inch thick. (Keep the edges rough-looking to resemble fossils.) Place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and repeat until all dough is used. Be sure to place the cookies at least an inch apart. 

5. Bake for 6-8 minutes. As soon as they come out of the oven, use your dinosaurs to make fossil imprints. Make sure to press the dinosaur down firmly but gently, and roll it around a bit to get all of the details. 

6. Brush the *cinnamon sugar into the imprints to make them stand out. Once cookies are firm enough to move, transfer to a cooling rack. 

*Note: I thought we had cinnamon sugar, but lo and behold, we did not. For step 6, we made a powdered sugar and milk mixture and added a few drops of green food coloring. We used small paintbrushes to “paint” the mixture into our dinosaur imprints.

I hope you have fun if you try this one out.

Hang in there mess-hating moms, you got this!

---

Looking for more baking fun? Check out Recipes to Make with Kids on our blog, and sign-up your child for an upcoming baking class near you!