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This post was written by Children's Museum Blog Ambassador, Nick Downey. Follow Nick's posts on the blog or follow him on Twitter @DadWithaBlog.
On our most recent visit to The Children's Museum, we stopped into the new Gingerbread Cafe for a snack, and it got us in the mood for some of our traditional Christmas cookies. Every year, we gather around with cookies in hand and carols on the radio to decorate our Christmas tree. It's a tradition as old as our family, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. So this year, we converged around the table to build gingerbread reindeer cookies. They are pretty simple to assemble and it's easy to get little hands involved. The ingredients are few, and the instructions very straightforward.
- Begin with gingerbread dough (we used store bought because kids love helping mix any dough, but that can get a little messy, and I like projects with less clean-up)
- You'll also need a small bag of RedHots (also called cinnamon imperials if you look in the generic baking section)
- Next, pick up mini pretzels (these will be used as reindeer antlers, so don't think you'll get away with using those huge soft pretzels from the mall)
- Finally, a small bag of chocolate baking chips will make up your cookie's eyes (and if my family is any indication, more than a few will also line your stomachs before the baking is done)
After you assemble the ingredients (and your helpers!) you begin by forming the dough into a rough prism shape. Then simply slice the log into thin triangles, and let your helpers lay them out on a cookie sheet. Bake per the dough instructions, and when you pull them out, immediately begin pressing two mini pretzels into two corners for the antlers, a red hot into the third corner for Rudolph's nose, and two chocolate chips in the middle for the eyes. If you have really little ones helping, you can remove the cookies to a cooling plate before building your reindeer. Rudolph's nose provides a little spice to compliment the sweet molasses flavor inherent in the gingerbread.
Let your reindeer cool while you do a second pan, and then it's time to dig in! I'm sure Santa won't mind if you eat one (or two, or three...) of his reindeer, just don't name them before biting off their tasty little noses!
