Photographs: Claire Bogusz
Text: Claire Bogusz
Cute as can be and picnic-ready! These sugar cookies are super easy and make for a great baking activity with kids. The fun colours and shape are sure to be a delicious summertime hit!
Watermelon Sugar Cookies
(Makes approximately 36 cookies with a half-batch; or 72 for an entire batch)
Ingredients:
225 g butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla sugar (vanilje ekstrakt or vaniljesukker)
480 g flour (hvedemel)
1 tsp baking soda (natron)
1 tsp salt
Red and green food colouring
Chocolate sauce (can be store-bought)
Method:
Whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Using an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar together for approximately 3 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well. Add vanilla and mix. Scrape down sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
With the mixer on a low speed, add flour mixture in small increments until fully incorporated.
Gather dough into a smooth, round ball and place on a lightly floured surface.
Using a knife or bench scraper, divide the dough into thirds.
Using red food colouring, colour two-thirds of the dough. Add a couple of drops at a time and gently knead the dough until the desired colour is reached.
Repeat steps with the remaining one-third of the dough, using green food colouring.
After the dough is coloured, roll the green section of the dough into a rectangular shape.
Roll the red section of the dough into a log-like shape and place lengthwise in the middle of the green rectangle.
Wrap the green rectangle around the red log, so it encircles the red dough. You should have a log shape with an outer green ring and an inner red circle when you are finished.
Gently roll the log shape, so it is as rounded as possible.
Roll the log up in a piece of parchment, then cover with a piece of tin foil and twist or fold the ends closed.
Place the log of dough in the refrigerator to chill for a least one hour or overnight. You want the dough to be nice and firm, so it will be easy to slice.
Before removing the dough log from the refrigerator, preheat the oven to 160 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
After properly chilled, remove the dough log and unwrap it from the foil and parchment.
Using a large, sturdy knife, cut the log into slices approximately 1,3 cm thick. You may need to slice off the first piece of the dough log to give the rest of the log a clean demarcation of red and green.
Cut each circle slice of dough in half, revealing a watermelon “slice” shape.
Place semicircle slices of cookies on prepared baking sheet. The cookies retain their shape when baked and should not spread, so they can be placed close together on the sheet.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Remove from oven and allow to fully cool on a cooling rack.
Pour a small amount of chocolate sauce into a pastry bag. Cut a small hole at the point.
Pipe four small teardrop shapes along the bottom of the red portion of each cookie to form watermelon seeds.
Place cookies in the refrigerator for approximately 10 minutes to allow chocolate to set before serving.
Store remaining cookies in an airtight container for up to one week.
Tip: if you only want to make a half-batch, roll the remaining dough log half back up in the parchment and foil. Store log in the freezer until future use (up to 3 months) and thaw slightly before slicing.
