The most delicious chocolate dipped cut-out cookies (that your toddler can make)!

Yes, I know baking isn’t generally considered a craft, but I would argue that my definition could apply to either: a fun process of combining materials in order to create something wonderful.
Wouldn’t you agree..?

We made these with Pickle a couple of months ago in an attempt to use up some of the mountains of chocolate that he was given over Easter.  I’m not sure whether he enjoyed the baking or eating more!

You will need:
– Chocolate (we used milk chocolate from leftover easter eggs: about 400g in total, it really depends how thick you like your chocolate)!
– 90 grams soft unsalted butter
– 100 grams caster sugar
– 1 large egg
– ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
– 200 grams plain flour (plus more for rolling)
– ½ teaspoon baking powder
– ½ teaspoon salt
– cookie cutters

COST: under £5
AGE: 2+ (with help!)
TIME: 60 minutes actual prep/making (plus time for the cookies to bake and cool and for the chocolate to set).  We cheated and made the cookie dough the day before.

https://www.instagram.com/p/bWYVfbGenH/#

How-to:

• We started by mixing up some of Nigella’s cut-out cookie dough from ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ (her recipe makes 20-25 cookies, so you could easily freeze ½ the dough to use another day).
• Then Pickle rolled out the dough (with a little help) to ¾cm thickness* and cut shapes including ducks, tractors, stars and hearts – just like PlayDoh!  He placed them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 10 minutes.
• While they were cooling, we smashed up some milk chocolate eggs (lots of fun!) and melted them in a bain marie (not as fancy as it sounds).  Pickle stirred the chocolate as it melted.
• We then took the pan off the heat and Pickle dipped the biscuits in one at a time to semi-coat them in a thick layer of chocolate.  He also made sure the chocolate tasted good…

https://www.instagram.com/p/bWY3PlGeoM/#

• The biscuits went into the fridge for an hour, so the chocolate could set.
• I then ‘double-dipped’ some, and drizzled white chocolate over the rest (while Pickle was napping).
• Once fully set, we sampled them with a cuppa.  Chops and Grumps were particular fans!

How old were your children when they started to bake?  Do they still enjoy it?
Do you consider baking a ‘craft’?  I know I do!

*Nigella says ½ a cm, but our oven tends to dry them out too much unless we cut them thick – maybe because it’s a fan?