Making cookies with the kids

Looking forward to making Christmas cookies with help from young bakers? Here is some practical advice from experts gathered by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that will make the time fun and the cleanup a bit easier:

1. Have everything ready ahead before you call in the kiddos. Ingredients out, equipment on the counter.

2. Pace yourself. If attention spans are short, do one tray with the kids and finish the rest later yourself. Or spread it out over a couple of days. Think one tray for decorated cookies that are the messiest, another for simpler drop cookies.

3. Contain the mess. Give each child a large baking sheet with sides (like a jellyroll pan) as their personal work space for decorating cookies. Just put a damp dish towel underneath to help keep it in place. It will help keep sprinkles and such contained and off the floor. Hopefully. Wooden Popsicle sticks work great for kids as frosting spreaders, too.

4. Consider the child’s age. But don’t discount the littlest ones. Every step of the way, kids can be involved, whether it’s cracking eggs or measuring ingredients. Or dumping in what you’ve measured. Or pushing the button on the mixer. Work fast. Don’t make it too involved.

5. Consider your recipe choices. Cut-out cookies are a natural. Any sort of tool you can incorporate makes it more fun for them. Working with a cookie press is like packing it with Play-Doh, said one expert.

Cookies that need to be shaped by hand are also winners because kids like to get in there and handle the dough.

But stick to foolproof recipes. This is not the time to try something new.

6. With older kids, especially, dig beneath the recipe. Maybe you have a cookie that has a history in your family, tell that story. For example, if you make a cookie with anise, explain that it’s an old German tradition.

7. Don’t micromanage. Park your perfectionism at the kitchen door. It’s important to let the kids make their own masterpiece.

8. Finally, believe that it’s worth the extra effort, time and mess.

This story was originally published December 7, 2015 at 4:53 AM with the headline "Making cookies with the kids."