Cook With San Diego County Library: Stained Glass Snowflake Cookies

Baking is a long-standing tradition in Librarian Elizabeth Vagani’s family!

See what she has to say about these cookies and try your hand at baking them.

“Having passed a hereditary sweet-tooth to three kids under the age of ten, we teach them to bake early, and we bake often. The holidays are the perfect time to indulge in this family delight; memories (and messes) are made each year as we dust the counters, and each other, with flour and sugar.

To start this family baking adventure, we checked out the American Girls Holiday Baking cookbook. After paging through, we settled on the Stained Glass Snowflake cookies.

This recipe was selected for three reasons: 1) it looked fun, 2) we had most of the ingredients on hand, and 3) there was something in the recipe for each of my kids to help out with.

The nine-year-old could measure and mix, the seven-year-old could roll and cut, and the three-year-old could smash candy with a hammer. After mixing everything together, the dough needed to rest in the fridge for an hour. This wait, as any seasoned parent-baker knows, was the most excruciating part of the entire process.

Once the dough was chilled, the rolling, cutting and baking were simple. We skipped the frosting, since cookies filled with candy seemed sufficient, and enjoyed the beautiful and tasty cookies as soon as they had cooled.

To any potential parent-bakers out there, caught between the warring forces of ‘baking is so fun!’ and ‘cleaning up is my nightmare,’ I encourage you to go for it!

Pick out a recipe together with your kiddos, roll up your sleeves, and get baking. The process will be even more enjoyable than your final result.”