Fall Cookies

Our high schoolers with autism made fall cookies this morning.  My SLP buddy and I had planned to have the students blend the food coloring gel into the dough themselves, but after seeing the deep red color all over my hands we switched gears, since it looked an awful lot like blood.  Call me neurotic and overly-cautious but some folks get freaked out pretty easily.

This was our recipe and guide:  Fall Leaves Sugar Cookies

Now, our plan was to make well-blended dough in yellow, orange and red.  The yellow gel blended evenly into the dough but the red and orange maintained a marbleized look, which ended up being kinda pretty.  Thanks to Ms. H for the excellent photos!

Remember, red and yellow make orange...

My SLP buddy drizzled the gel on the dough, then mixed it in with her hands.



We floured the surface and rolling "pin" and rolled the dough about 1/8" thick before cutting it with either a maple leaf or a turkey cookie cutter.  Several students required hand-over-hand guidance to press down firmly on the rolling pin and one student did not enjoy having pressure applied to her hands, not in the least bit.

We used a firm plastic tumbler instead of a rolling pin, since that's all we had.

Students chose coarse, white crystal sprinkles or fine orange sprinkles to dust the cookies before baking.  My SLP buddy is enamored with cinnamon sugar and kept asking the students if they'd like to sprinkle it on, as well.  It probably adds to the taste but it made the top of the cookies look dull beige.

Students used hot pads to safely place the tray in/out of the little toaster oven in the classroom.  I stood next to them with my own hot pads to assist, but it wasn't necessary.

Of course, the SLP and I "sabotaged" the location of the materials and kept ingredients and tools out of the students' reach, so they would have to ask each other to pass something. 

It was an excellent activity for practicing thorough hand washing...