Sadie and Ali Making Earth Day Cookies
all photos by Jolie NovakI wanted to share the importance of keeping the planet green with my eight-year-old daughter, Sadie, by making Earth Day cookies. Her good friend, Ali, seven, joined us for the fun.

The girls were thrilled with the idea, particularly because they had recently participated in an annual school-wide walkathon to raise money for organizations working for a healthier, cleaner environment.

For the project, I chose this Basic Sugar Cookies with Glaze recipe, which has a white glaze so it's easy to tint with food coloring. First, Sadie and Ali gathered all the ingredients and tools, then we got started with the fun part -- see how, below.
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We started by beating the butter and sugar with a hand-held electric mixer. It is important that the butter is at room temperature so it is easier and smoother to mix. To keep things safe, I helped the girls hold the mixer.
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Jolie Novak
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Sadie cracked the egg and Ali added the vanilla and salt.
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Then came the flour, which the girls added gradually while stirring the mixture. We flattened the dough, wrapped it in waxed paper and put it in the refrigerator for an hour -- this helps the dough firm up so it's easier to roll out and cut. (Make sure to account for the time needed for this step when you're planning your cookie-making project. You can make the dough days in advance and keep it in the fridge until you're ready to make the cookies.)
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Next they made a white glaze, which simply involves stirring together confectioners sugar and a liquid -- you can use water, milk, lemon juice or orange juice. We used lemon juice and kept adding more little by little until the glaze had an easy-to-spread consistency.
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Ali chose neon blue food coloring and Sadie chose neon green to add to the glaze. The girls decided to mix them together to create a blue-green shade. The color turned out perfectly and they enjoyed putting a drop in and watching the colors swirl together.
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Sadie and Ali were ready to get started rolling out the dough, which was firm after having been in the fridge for an hour. They prepared their baking sheets by lining them with tin foil and a spreading a bit of flour out so the dough would not stick.
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The girls shared circular cookie cutter. They had to be careful as the dough was thin after rolling it out and it was tricky to get the extra dough around the circles off without ruining the cookies.
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The cookies looked great after baking and they were ready to decorate.
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After the girls glazed the cookies, they decorated them with blue and green sparkle gel. (Pictured here is Ali's "Earth and Oceans" cookie.)
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The girls felt free to decorate their cookies however they wanted. In addition to globes, they did a bird, trees, flowers and the word EARTH. (Pictured here is Sadie's "Earth Bird".)
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Ali and Sadie displayed their plate of Earth Appreciation cookies.