Play Dough Cookies

This year for Christmas I thought it would be fun to decorate with red and blue, along with chocolate brown and white thrown in too. I usually just decorate with the traditional red and green, but I saw the border design on this scrapbook paper(in photo) and liked it so much that I decided to try and decorate for Christmas this year using these colors.  The blue in the cookie isn't exactly the blue I was going for, and the red needs to be deeper, but hopefully you get the picture.

When I told my husband the name of these cookies, he thought they were actually play dough:)  The name refers only to appearance because the recipe is really rather tasty! (I  added cocoa to make the brown dough as opposed to food coloring.) I do love the color combination!

 These cookies were a lot of fun to make and fashion into lollipops! (I did make this cookie recipe once before, making rainbows and lollipops, but this second version has the cocoa added to them.) Of course, the color possibilities are endless, and could be adapted for any holiday or event. I'm sure children would love to help!

The lollipops look very festive when packaged up like their candy counterpart. After wrapping them, I stored them in the freezer in an airtight container. This Christmas cookie event is helping me to get ahead of the game for Christmas, at least in the cookie department:)

Play Dough Cookies ( adapted from allrecipes.com)
* 3/4 cup butter, softened
* 3 ounces cream cheese
* 1 cup white sugar
* 1 egg
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 Tablespoon baking cocoa*
* assorted colors of paste food coloring
* 24 lollipop sticks (optional)

1. In the electric mixer, cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
2. In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms. Divide dough into fourths(I only made 3 colors, so divided it in thirds). Tint each with a different food color(*With 1/3 of the dough I added about 1 tablespoon of baking cocoa instead of coloring) . Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Working with half of each color, shape dough into 3/4 inch balls(since I used only 3 colors I fashioned 1 inch balls) and for each cookie place 1 pink, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 orange (I used red, yellow, blue and green) ball together to make 1 large ball. Shape into a 12 inch long roll (like a snake), starting at one end, coil roll to make a 2 3/4 inch round cookie. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Carefully insert lollipop sticks into bottoms of cookies.
4. Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned(depending on your oven). Cool and store in an airtight container.

This recipe made 14 lollipop cookies for me. 

Thanksgiving Challenge: Today, I am thankful for the beautiful, fall weather we are having on the central coast!  I just love it here!
 This post is linked up to: Tasty Tuesdays and Lovin' it Fridays