What ever happened to watermelons with seeds? Are watermelons even advertised as "seedless" anymore or is that just considered the norm nowadays? I guess I have a bit of a soft spot for watermelons with seeds because I have this one particular memory of the last day of first grade and for some reason we were eating a ton of this really delicious watermelon just full of seeds. My teacher had everyone in the class save all of their seeds and she took us outside at the end of the day to have a watermelon seed spiting contest. Apparently I thought this was pretty awesome because I can still remember that afternoon quite vividly even 20 years later. I don't actually recall eating watermelon full of seeds since that day, but it seems that whenever watermelons are recreated iconically they always tend to be covered in seeds. These cookies, for example, would not be complete without those little chocolate seeds, but when eating actual watermelon even that stray seed the pops up here or there tends to have people giving the reaction of "hey what the heck is this seed doing in my watermelon?!?" Don't get me wrong, it is so much easier to chow down on a bunch of watermelon without seeds all over the place, but it all just seems a little ironic. Also, the whole seedless watermelon thing makes you wonder what genetically modified fruit or veggie are they going to come up with next? But let's not even get started on that subject ;-)
Whether you like your watermelon with or without seeds, these sugar cookie duplicates were a huge hit, not only because they look amazing; they were also very tasty. The dough is very easy to put together; you just have to have some patience and forethought to make these super cute cookies. The dough needs to chill for at least a couple of hours and assembly is a little time consuming so make sure you have plenty of time to get these together. To make the cookie dough, add the cold butter slices, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and red food coloring to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat with the paddle attachment on medium low speed until this mixture comes together. Add the salt, baking powder, and half of the flour and mix until combined. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the rest of the flour, and mix until everything is well incorporated. Divide the dough in two and form each half into a disk shape. The dough will be pretty soft and might be a little sticky at this point, but just do the best you can and then wrap the disks in plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator for at least two hours. I made this dough the night before I wanted to bake the cookies so it was able to chill out overnight. I think this made a big difference in working with the dough since it was very well chilled and my kitchen is basically a sauna this time of year; so the longer the dough had to chill out, the easier this whole process was for me.
Once the dough has chilled remove one disk of the dough from the fridge, unwrap from the plastic wrap, and place between two sheets of wax paper. This makes it extremely easy (and pretty much mess free) to roll the dough out without adding any extra flour like you might normally do when rolling out dough.
Roll the dough out to approximately 1/4" thick.
Use a cookie cutter or other round object to cut circles of whatever size watermelons you plan on making. I think my cookie cutter was about 2".
Remove the excess dough from around the circles and reform into a disk and pop back into the fridge while you work on assembling these cookies. Cut each circle in half to make your watermelon slices. Then using a super small circle cutter or the edge of a heart with a scalloped edge cut the little "bites" out of the watermelon slices. You could probably just use a knife and cut a small indent but it might not have exactly the same effect.
Place the cookies on a baking tray and press five mini chocolate chips upside down in a random pattern to make the watermelon seeds.
Bake in a 350°F oven for about 7-8 minutes, just until the cookies are set but not yet browning. Cool completely on a wire rack before adding the "rind" decoration. Keep rolling out the remaining dough and repeating the same process until you use up all of the dough. By the way, this recipe made a lot of cookies. I ended up with about 5 dozen, so feel free to cut the recipe in half or freeze one of the disks for later use. Also, you can make any variety of decorated sugar cookie you want with this dough. You can leave out the red food coloring at the beginning and have plain sugar cookies or if you want to make a variety of colors, make up the dough, separate into bowls, and color before chilling in the fridge.
Once the cookies are fully cooled melt some white chocolate or white
candy melts in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until the candy is completely melted and smooth. If the candy melts are really thick when melted (this happens sometimes depending on the color candy melt you are using) you can add a tiny spoon of shortening to thin the mixture.
Dip the curved edge of each cookie just barely into the chocolate and then press into green sprinkles to create the "rind" of the watermelon. I tried to use the side of the bowl that the sprinkles were in to help me press the sprinkles and chocolate in to place on the cookie.
Place the cookies on a sheet of wax paper until the chocolate is set. You can put the cookies in the fridge at this point if you need to speed up this process. In my experience, candy melts harden pretty fast, so if you are using those, this step won't take too long and will be able to enjoy your cookies shortly!
I stacked these perfectly sweet and soft cookies up on a platter and took them to a barbecue where every last one of them was eaten within a couple of hours.
I really can't say enough about how delicious these watermelon cookies were. They were sturdy enough to decorate but so soft with a little bit of chewy when you bit into them. The chocolates added a little contrasting sweetness and the sprinkles gave a nice sugary crunchy texture. These were really worth the time needed to prep and assemble them. Wherever you bring these everyone will think they are the absolute perfect summer cookies!
Watermelon Sugar Cookies
Makes about 5 dozen
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 tablespoon slices
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon watermelon extract
a squirt of red food gel or 6-8 drops red food coloring
1 cup white chocolate chips, or candy coating
pearlized green sugar
1 cup miniature semi sweet morsels
- See more at: http://www.meganscookin.com/watermelon-sugar-cookies#sthash.hApa2pvh.dpuf
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)
Red food coloring
1 cup mini chocolate chips
1 cup white chocolate or candy melts
Green sugar sparkles/sprinkles
Combine butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and food coloring in a stand mixer and beat on medium low speed with the paddle attachment until combined. Add baking powder, salt, and half of the flour mixing until incorporated. Scrape down the sides and beat in remaining flour until fully incorporated. Divide dough into two portions, form into disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator at least two hours but up to overnight. Remove dough from the refrigerator one disk at a time and roll out between two sheets of wax paper to 1/4" thick. Cut out circles, remove excess dough, cut circles in half and then cut the "bite" out of each circle half. Place cookies on a baking tray and press five mini chocolate upside down into the dough. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 7-8 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack completely. Repeat process with all remaining dough. To decorate, melt white chocolate and dip the edge of each cookie in the chocolate. Press into green sprinkles to form the "rind" of the watermelon. Place on a sheet of wax paper to harden. The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for several days at room temperature.
Enjoy!
3 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 tablespoon slices
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon watermelon extract
a squirt of red food gel or 6-8 drops red food coloring
1 cup white chocolate chips, or candy coating
pearlized green sugar
1 cup miniature semi sweet morsels
- See more at: http://www.meganscookin.com/watermelon-sugar-cookies#sthash.hApa2pvh.dpuf
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