Watermelon Cookies!

Oh, have I been having fun. I was browsing online last night, submersed in the big-wide-world of recipes as I do, and I happened upon this darling recipe for Watermelon Cookies. I got so excited that after copying and pasting, I closed my browser and called it a night. I couldn’t focus on anything else as I was on a mission and knew what I had to do. I’m having a weekend gathering at our house over the 4th of July holiday and because of the wonderfully festive spirit of these, I felt like I’d already accomplished something. They were of course, next on my “to make” list. I mean, how much more perfect for summer could these be? Well, I’m happy to report after giving them a go, they are everything I’d hoped for. Not only are they adorable, fun, festive and all those good things… they actually taste delicious, too! Not always the case with showy baked goods, but no worries here. They might look a touch fussy to make, but they’re actually quite easy. Um… ironically, the most technical part of this is rolling the dough sections together up in the log and I have to apologize because I totally got carried away and forgot to take pictures of that part. I didn’t remember until I was lying in bed for the night as the dough log was lying in the refrigerator chillin’! Ahhh well…  just follow the instructions carefully and they’ll come out great. So I highly recommend giving these a try and I promise you’ll have just as much fun as I did.

Watermelon Cookies

36 Servings

Prep: 25 min. + chilling

Bake: 9 min./batch

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

Red and green gel food coloring

1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips or raisins, chopped

Directions

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat

in egg and extract. In another bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and

salt; gradually beat into creamed mixture. Reserve 1 cup dough.

Tint remaining dough red; shape into a 3-1/2-in.-long roll. Wrap in

plastic wrap. Tint 1/3 cup of reserved dough green; wrap in plastic

wrap. Wrap remaining plain dough. Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm.

On a lightly floured surface, roll plain dough into an

8-1/2×3-1/2-in. rectangle. Unwrap red dough and place on a short end

of the plain dough; roll up.

Roll green dough into a 10×3-1/2-in. rectangle. Place red and plain

roll on a short end of the green dough; roll up. Wrap in plastic

wrap; refrigerate overnight.

Preheat oven to 350°. Unwrap and cut dough into 3/16-in. slices

(just less than 1/4 in.). Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking

sheets. If desired, lightly press chocolate chips into red dough to

resemble watermelon seeds.

Bake 9-11 minutes or until firm. (Don’t brown or they’ll get too crisp!)

Immediately cut cookies in half.

Remove to wire racks to cool. Yield: about 3 dozen.

Recipe slightly adapted from allrecipes.com