We bought a giant watermelon at the market the other day. Lex’s choice. Give that boy a watermelon and a spoon and he’s a happy camper! (Remind you of anyone, B?!) Eve, however, had other plans for the watermelon. “Let’s make watermelon cookies,” she said to me yesterday. She wanted to make them yesterday, but I said no because I had other things to make, and she wanted to make them today but we were out all day, so when I picked her up after school she asked if we could please come home and make watermelon cookies. She even wanted to skip Lego Club (a wild playtime her classmates do every Wednesday after school) so we could make cookies today. What could I say other than, “Ok, let’s make cookies!”
She wanted free range with the recipe, like we did with the Flower Rose Pie (almost this same time last year!). However, since these were to be cookies they would require a certain consistency to the batter, so she wrote her recipe (blue squiggles all over the back of a coloring sheet) and then agreed to also consider my recipe (lemon drop sugar cookies from KAF). Following the basic guideline from the KAF recipe we went to work. Here’s what the final recipe was:
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. granulated sugar
1 c. sour cream
2 rather large slices of watermelon, rind removed
2 1/4 c. white wheat flour
1 c. all purpose flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
Red food coloring (AmeriColor soft gel paste, or whatever you’ve got)
Cream sugar and butter in mixing bowl. Add sour cream and mix well. Pierce watermelon chucks well with a fork then add to bowl. Mix until somewhat smooth or until you get bored of mixing and want to move on. Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Put many drops of food coloring in. Have fun with it! Mix well. Then let mom have a turn to scrape down the sides and mix again.
Preheat the oven to 375° Drop by very large cookie-scoop full onto a cookie sheet. We used parchment paper, as usual. Otherwise you’d probably want to grease those cookie sheets. Sprinkle chocolate sprinkles on top to resemble watermelon seeds. (I briefly considered lining them up in arcs, as watermelon seeds really are, but then let go of that madness and let Eve carry on with her sprinkling.)
Bake for about 18 minutes or until they are firmish. The recipe says to bake until a very light gold around the edges, but you can’t really see that in these pink cookies.
Cool on a cooling rack for awhile then cut in half to make them look like watermelon slices.
We put some thought into how to make a green rind around the edge, but couldn’t come up with anything that didn’t involve a lot of work on my part (fondant, separate cookie dough, etc.) or a trip to the store (gummy worms, fruit candies, etc.) So we settled for just the melon, hold the rind, and everyone was happy.
They actually taste ok. Cakey and not super sweet. Not super watermelony either though. Now I want to go back and make the original lemon drop cookie recipe too. I bet that would be yummy. :)
Happy creative baker
We put two chunks that size and larger into the batter. Mix it all about!
Add some flour. She likes this part and I don't often let her do it.
Eat some watermelon while you wait. (she wouldn't smile for me, but I got a nice shot of the curls instead!)
Lex heard me say "Watermelon" and came tearing in from the living room, big grin on his face! It's a good thing we bought a huge melon, otherwise there might not have been enough left for the cookies!
Sprinkle on some chocolate "seeds." Chocolated covered sunflower seeds would look good here too.
Enjoy! (I just noticed that this picture would have looked better if the cookies were flipped over, flat side up)
I have had several “slices of watermelon” this evening. These will not help at my weigh-in in the morning!
