Experimenting in the Kitchen

You might think we elves are little, but we love to eat. An elf will never skip a meal and will eat at least two breakfasts before going to Santa’s workshop and three breakfasts before going to school. At Santa’s Saturday School of Wonders, everyone loves cooking classes because it means we get have fun and taste all the food. Yum!

Imagine you could invent the most scrumptious, lip-smackingly delicious treat ever (what would it be?). That’s what we elves try to do in cooking class, though our food isn’t always good. Sometimes, it’s awful! Santa likes to say that we can learn the most from our mistakes. But sometimes, mistakes can end up being good surprises too.

Our reindeers’ favorite cookie was created at Santa’s Saturday School of Wonders –by accident! An elf student wanted to make cookies that looked like reindeer. He followed all of the teacher’s ideas, but one: the elf confused the salt with the sugar. Eating these cookies was like pouring a salt-shaker right into your mouth! But, did you know that deer love the taste of salt? These are now a special-occasion, reindeer treats. What a great mistake that was.

When you cook, you get to eat your own inventions and trying them is part of the adventure. Ask a grown-up to help you make these more elf-appealing, reindeer cookies (you can even leave some on a plate for Santa). Make sure you wash your hands before you get cooking!

Reindeer Cookies
You will need:

• Cookie dough sliced into rounds or cut into circles with a cookie cutter.
• Red, blue, and brown candy covered chocolate pieces (such as M&Ms)
• Thin pretzels

Space your cookies on a cookie sheet following the cookie dough recipe. Using your fingers, pinch in the sides of each circle just a little to make it more like a reindeer’s head (think of the shape of a peanut – it should look a little like that). On the top half, put two chocolate or blue candies for the eyes. On the bottom, put a brown or red candy for the nose. Break a few pretzels, and take two longer pieces to use for the antlers. Stick into the dough on either side of the top of the head. Bake the amount of time recommended on the recipe and then get ready to share your cookies!