Using Rubber Stamps on Cookie Dough

The following is another example of something that is generally a flop can sometimes still produce deceivingly decent pictures.  Inspired by Martha Stewart, we tried using our rubber stamp collection on cookie dough the other day.  We washed off the stamps, made up a batch of shortbread dough (because I had read that it puffs up the least in the oven), and experimented a little bit.

This is what we learned:

- deeper, simpler stamps are better
- you don't want to press down too hard because then the corners of the stamp show up
- you don't want to press too lightly because then the outline of the picture is indiscernible
- even when you are as careful as possible, the picture often fades away in the oven.  Only about a third of ours turned out.

I love that the girls were completely unaware of its having been an aesthetic flop. To them, it was just like playing with sweet playdoh.  They especially liked using our pawprint stamps on the doh, and they enjoyed painting the cookies afterward with diluted food dye.