Dino-Tarpit Cookie Recipe + Giveaway!

Dino-tarpit Holiday Cookies

by Heather Macht

So many kids, and adults even, LOVE dinosaurs! And, let’s face it… this was a huge year for dinosaurs, too, given the Jurassic World movie release. Since I have some little dinosaur lovers at home, I went to the drawing board and thought of ways to combine dinosaurs and holiday treats, together, to put a unique spin on them.
I came up with the idea of dino-tarpit cookies. Ok, I admit, they sound a little unconventional. However, they are kid tested and approved…and praised and devoured. 😉
Here’s a step by step guide, with pictures, to show just how easy and seriously fun they are to make!

Dino-tarpit Cookies:

Ingredients:

• Your favorite cookie dough, pre-made or homemade (enough to make one dozen cookies). I used Pillsbury Sugar Cookies.
• Colorful Sugar Sprinkles (optional). I used Red and Green.
• Chocolate Melts. I used Wilton’s light cocoa candy melts, found at Walmart.
• 12 Mini-Vinyl Dinosaurs. You can get these from any toy store, and may even have some lying around your kid’s room. I purchased a pack online at Amazon.
  *Note: Please make sure to wash and disinfect the dinosaurs first, of course!

Directions:

Place 1 dozen pieces of rolled batter on a greased cookie sheet. Lightly sprinkle with the colored sprinkles and bake the cookies according to their directions.
After the cookies are done, let them cool for 2 minutes. While the cookies are still soft and malleable, take a large table spoon and place the rounded bottom of the spoon in the center, lightly pressing, to make a pit in the cookie. This will help hold the chocolate.

Let the cookies finish cooling.

Once the cookies cool, heat the chocolate melts according to their directions. Place a spoonful of chocolate in each cookie’s center, inside the pit you created earlier. Let the chocolate cool slightly, for approximately 3 minutes, and place a vinyl dinosaur on top of each cookie.

Let the chocolate cool until it is fully hardened. This can take about 30-45 minutes.

Tip: For quicker cooling, you can place the cookies in the fridge (for approx. 10 minutes).

Once cooled, present your holiday treats to the kids, or adult dino-lovers, and enjoy! These are a lot of fun; we shared tons of giggles while eating them. You can even snuggle up and enjoy them while reading along with your favorite holiday or dinosaur book. And, if you don’t have a dinosaur book at home, I may just have a great book for you!

Enter to Win You May Just Be a Dinosaur!

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Ends Dec 14

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