Decorated Barbecue Cookies

If you are ever in a cookie rut... might I suggest a little game to jump start your creativity? It's really simple. Let 2 children under the age of 4 go all crazy-pants in your cookie cutter cabinet. Just pretend that you are going to do something actually productive like feed the baby or learn Mandarin and come back 3.6 minutes later. Your cutters will be scattered across the house like... like...well, like something that gets scattered all over the place when your back is turned but isn't gross, because I really hate bugs and cookie cutters should never be compared to bugs. Especially the gross ones.

Decorate Barbecue Cookies with Chips Tutorial

And then let your 7 year old help you sort them back into their appropriate boxes. Because when he picks up the ark cutter... he might just think it's a hamburger. And then you're set. Although, there's always the chance that he'll think it's one of those little robot vacuum things instead. And then demand that you get him one so he doesn't have to clean his room anymore. But you *know* that if you get him a vacuum robot, you are only one step away from paying someone to feed him Cheetos while he watches marathon, back-to-back episodes of Saved By The Bell because he's 30 years old and never figured out how to do anything by himself. So... there's that risk. But on the off chance that it goes the way of the hamburger, let me show you how to make some chips to go with it.

But first... let's talk about the Cookies and Cards project I do once a month with my cousin. She's fabulous and makes cards and fun paper projects and puts them on her blog Simply Pam's Creations. and then I snag one of them and make cookies and she makes another great card from a cookie I've made. What's not to love, right? I fell in love with the lemonade pitcher the instant I saw this and just kept right on going with the rest of the cookies. And back to chips...

Start with a 4 leaf clover cutter. And grab a long plaque cutter and cut off a leaf and a stem. You can bake it just like that or squish it together a little or just throw it on the baking sheet and see what happens.

1. Once these gems are baked, they are only too easy to decorate. Use 15 second pale yellow icing to flood a blobby shape that vaguely resembles a chip. Let it dry for 15 minutes, or until it crusts over.
2. Add another blobby chip shape and let that dry for a few minutes too.
3. And then finally add the last chip. Let the whole mess of chips dry for a couple of hours.
4. Outline the chips and add some ridge lines with a #2.5 tip. You can stop here if you like. I won't mind.
5. Or you could let your chips dry for a couple more hours and then dust them up with some gold and brown luster dust. Your choice.