Thursday Recipe - Jello Cookies

Or whatever you call them. These fun cookies use flavored gelatin, so go wild. Make them any flavor/color you want. I've run across several different versions of these, but this one has worked best for me. I made strawberry and lime for this Christmas picture. Ignore the sorry tree, it's my son's personal one he got from a Cub Scout leader years ago. It's a tradition for us to have hokey/dorky Christmas decorations. You should see the real tree. Wait, no you shouldn't. I'd be embarrassed.

Jello Cookies

3/4 c. butter, softened
1/3 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1 3 oz. pkg. flavored gelatin
1 t. vanilla
1 egg
1 t. baking powder
3 to 3.5 c. flour

Heat oven to 400°. Cream butter, shortening, sugar, and gelatin until well blended and fluffy. Add vanilla, egg, and baking powder. Beat well. Stir in flour. If the dough is really sticky, add that extra half cup. It should be a soft dough, but not a really sticky one. If you're concerned, go ahead and bake one cookie. If it spreads too much, then add the extra flour. Scoop by Tablespoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400° (you preheated the oven, right?) for 8 minutes, until very lightly browned. Let the cookies set up for 3-5 minutes before removing from the cookie sheet.

Hint: Don't mix gelatin flavors in the same batch. Do separate batches.

I pulled out about 1/3 c. of the mix before I added flour and used 2/3 c. rice flour to make cookies for my wheat-allergic daughter. It worked quite well. That's why I'm not quite sure how much real flour it takes. So if you're gluten-intolerant, you can substitute rice flour (a little gritty but not bad) or your favorite flour blend.

Optional stuff to make them fancy: Dip the tops of the cookies into colored sugar, extra jello, or colored sprinkles (the ball kind) before baking. Talk about festive!

Enjoy the cookies. I think I'm going to find some grape and berry blue jello to try next...