Graham-men Cookies

It is going to be Christmas and I have made an advent calendar for the kids. Instead of getting a candy everyday, they get to do a craft or an activity related to the holiday. I did plenty of research before making the calendar, and was ambitious enough to think that I could attempt something like this. After procrastinating for too long, I decided to cut down on the budget for the project (to $0!) and save a trip to the craft store by rummaging through the stuff we have at home. This is the result:

Advent Calendar with Recycled Materials

Made from recycled table mat, leftover wrapping paper, recycled ribbon and pages torn out of a complimentary supermarket magazine.

We are now down to Day 7 of December and tomorrow's activity is to make and decorate a gingerbread man. Faced with the prospect of bickering kids and messy kitchen, I resolved to limit my frustration by making the cookie dough in advance so they can fast forward to the fun step of decorating the cookies.

All gingerbread cookie recipes contain ginger (surprise! surprise). Not my kids' favourite and I am certain they can detect the ingredient despite copious amounts of sugar. This is why I decided to use a graham cracker recipe instead, which leads us to.... the graham-men cookie!

I have only made graham crackers once, and my picky little boy devoured the whole lot. I figured that means I should use that same recipe. Here it is, adapted from one of my favourite food blog, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.


Graham-men Cookie
(Adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody - Key Lime Graham Cracker Ice Box Cookie)

Ingredients
180g graham flour
125g all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
170g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g dark brown sugar
2 egg yolks
2 TBS honey


Steps

1. Sift together all flours, baking soda, cinnamon and salt
2. Using a stand mixer on paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar and honey at medium speed, until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes
3. Add egg yolk, mix until incorporated
4. Reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, continue mixing until all traces of flour is gone.
5. Separate into 2 balls, wrap them up in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight 
6. Preheat oven to 180C. Unwrap cookie dough, roll them out and cut them into desired shapes using cookie cutters. Bake until edges are slightly brown, about 12 minutes. Cool and store in an airtight container.