Inside: To help build up friendships, host a baking playdate with friends and ask each person to bring a special ingredient to make and then eat Friendship Cookies.
When I was a young girl in Girl Scouts, we used to make something called a Friendship Salad.
Each girl would bring a piece of cut-up fruit to add to a gigantic fruit salad bowl.
As we ate it together, each of us was eating some of the fruit we brought, but mostly what other girls brought.
And it was obvious to us: a fruit salad with lots of different types of fruit was way more delicious than eating only the fruit we brought.
As delicious as fruit salad is, my kids and I wanted to try something a little sweeter to make with friends: Friendship Cookies.
So we invited friends over for a bake date playdate and asked them each to bring a special ingredient.
The kids made the cookies together and took turns with the measuring and the pouring.
They each got to pour in their special ingredient and played while the cookies were baking.
And then of course, they ate Friendship Cookies together between the giggles.
Why Friendship Cookies Spread Kindness
We are are intentionally raising our kids to be kind.
And one of the easiest ways to be kind is be a good a friend.
For some kids, being a good friend comes naturally.
For other kids, we have to explicitly help them to find and keep good friends.
Related: How to Help our Kids Be a Good Friend
We encourage our kids to make Friendship Keychains and Friendship Flowers.
We use this Skittles Game and these 60 Discussion Starters to talk about kindness and friendship.
And we read books about friendship.
Now we’re adding Friendship Cookies to the list.
Ingredients needed for Friendship Cookies
- 1 cup melted butter
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1.5 Tablespoons vanilla
- 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 eggs
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- Friendship ingredients (see below)
Some great ingredients to suggest friends bring:
The best items to bring would be things that don’t melt when baked.
We tried marshmallows and caramel candy and they DID NOT work well. Learn from my melty hot mess cookies.
- chocolate chips
- pretzel sticks cut in half
- Whoppers, cut in fourths
- Lays or Ruffles potato chips (sounds weird, but it’s so delicious)
- raisins
- craisins
- peanuts (if there are no nut allergies)
- sprinkles
- white chocolate chips
- Skor bar, cut into tiny bites (if there are no nut allergies)
Steps to Make the Friendship Cookies
Download the recipe below and print it out or follow the steps here.
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a bowl, combine 1 cup of melted butter, 1 cup of packed brown sugar, 1/2 cup of sugar, 1.5 Tablespoons of vanilla and 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder.
3. Mix it thorougly and add in 2 eggs.
4. Stir in 2 1/2 cups flour and mix well.
5. Have your friends each pour in their special friendship ingredients.
6. Stir all the friendship ingredients together.
7. If one of the friendship ingredients is sprinkles, add those in.
8. Drop spoonfuls of cookie dough on the cookie sheet a few inches apart.
9. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.
10. Move to a wire rack to cool the cookies.
11. Share the cookies with friends because they’ll always taste better with a friend.
12. Or put them on a Friendship Plate and drop them off to a neighbor or friends.
Because friendship makes everything better.
Including fruit salads and cookies.
Get the Friendship Cookie Recipe here.
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