Olive Us: Episode 14: Hand Cookies

By Gabrielle.

Come make hand cookies! No cookie cutter required.

I loved working on this episode. Making hand cookies was a family tradition when I grew up and I remember it fondly. I loved the feel of the butter knife moving around my fingers, and I loved seeing my very own cookie — that was just my size (with my initials carved in!) —emerging from the oven. And most of all I loved decorating the hand with rings and bracelets made of sprinkles and candy pearls.

If you have a favorite cut-out cookie recipe, it will probably work just fine for these cookies. Or you can find my mother’s recipe here.

Some fun facts about this episode: The Grandma is my mother, Donna. She no longer owns the home I grew up in, but that recipe box? metal rolling pin? Those are the very same I grew up with. Seeing them makes me so nostalgic! And seeing the actual recipe card we used, in my mother’s fantastic hand-writing, is my favorite part.

Enjoy the video. Three cheers for baking with Grandma!

P.S. — For aprons in a pinch, we grabbed dish towels and tied them on with ribbon and twill tape. Easy (and cute!).

33 thoughts on “Olive Us: Episode 14: Hand Cookies”

  1. My two year old loves this video! He’s asked to watch it about sixteen times. I love the idea of these cookies too; we’re totally going to make some this year. Thanks for sharing!

    1. Thank you, Lara! We work with Tiger in a Jar, a husband-wife team based in SLC, for Olive Us videos. They’re so talented! They used Canon DSLR equipment. Their website is tigerinajar.com

  2. Oh, this might be my favorite Olive Us yet! So sweet, with your mom in the picture! And I love how the kids’ cookies reflect them so perfectly, too. Darling. Makes me want to bake cookies early!

    1. Yes! Though it’s sometimes hard for the 2 year old to understand how to keep their hand still for the tracing. We’ve found if we model it first on a big kid or a grownup, then June was more into it. : ) Happy baking!

  3. This choked me up – I’m think it’s a combination of not having grandparents anymore (those recipe cards!!!), not having any pleasant cooking experiences growing up, seeing Betty Blair all grown up, and being a hormonal woman. Hahahahaha! That’s very cute and sweet though! We did get to make cement stepping stones though, that were a ton of fun – we’d dip our hands in and then decorate with whatever we could find (including broken glass, but we were old enough to be careful at that age). I always had rings and painted nails and bracelets!

    1. The recipe cards do me in too! I do almost all my baking from internet recipes and books. I was so sad to realize my kids won’t have our favorite recipes in my hand-writing. : (

  4. Lovely tradition, Gaby!! And your beautiful mom is enjoying passing it. This must be a threat to watch for you! I should tape my mom working with my kids one of these days…

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  5. Gabby, I loved, loved, loved this episode! I loved seeing your mom on camera with your kids, passing on a fun tradition with them. This will for sure be a treasured video for you and your kids.

  6. I just have to comment today. I love these little videos so much! They inspire me to be a better parent. We are just starting our family (1 six month old, and 1 on the way!) and it’s refreshing to see families and siblings doing fun, constructive, worthwhile activities together that promote bonding, friendship, and love. I love to see families like yours, who are more real life, and less Disney channel. The Blair family is very inspiring! Thank you so much.

  7. What fun idea! I love that it’s do simple and personalizable! Play dates haven been getting little wild around her recently. Next time things get crazy I’m busting out the mixing bowls!

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