INTERESTING
Occupational therapists use activity analysis to break down an activity into steps in order to examine the individual parts to develop and improve skills. Any activity can be broken down into performance components to identify the skills required to complete the task or identify areas where the activity can be modified.
Preparing for the holiday meals and treats can be overwhelming and sometimes bog down the spirit, but did you ever consider all the aspects of cooking and baking that help develop your mind and body? Let’s do a quick activity analysis and identify the benefits of this purposeful task to help yourself or even your child.
Cognitive skills:
In order to follow a recipe you need to exercise a list of cognitive skills including organizing (gather the ingredients), sequencing (which ingredients go first), problem solving (how to figure out those fractions!) and attention span (don’t forget anything in the oven)
Emotional:
The satisfaction in completing a meal or dessert brings joy to those it is prepared for and in turn gives you the satisfaction of knowing you have done something good for someone else. The activity that produces food gives purpose and meaning to the task. And is there anything better than making someone else happy with something you made?
Social Skills:
If you involve some friends or family members in this cooking activity you will be sharing a meaningful task and possibly sharing a talent and teaching a new skill. This is the way our traditions are made!
Motor Skills:
All this tearing, opening, pouring, twisting, flipping and mixing develops and improves a long list of motor skills we need when we interact with our environment. For example standing can improve posture, the walking to and from the cabinet and oven enhances mobility, the opening and closing of packages and bottles develops coordination, the lifting 5 pound bags of sugar increases strength and endurance and the list can go on and on…
As you engage in all the preparations for the upcoming holidays, enjoy yourself and know that even some of the most mundane tasks can be doing good things for your body and mind. Have a happy, healthy holiday season!
Easy Sugar Cookies & Sugar Cookie Frosting
This is a great and easy recipe for Sugar Cookies and a sugar cookie frosting.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword christmas cookies, easy sugar cookie recipe, sugar cookie frosting, sugar cookie icing, sugar cookie recipe, sugar cookies
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 10 minutes
Chilling Time 2 hours
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 40 cookies
Calories 130kcal
Author Sam Merritt
Equipment
• Kitchen Scale (recommended but not required)
• Gel food coloring (these are the ones I use to color my sugar cookie icing)
Ingredients
Sugar Cookies
• 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (226g)
• 1 cup sugar (200g)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (315g)
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
Sugar Cookie Frosting
• 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted (375g)
• 3-4 Tablespoons milk
• 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Gel food coloring optional
• Additional candies and sprinkles for decorating optional
Instructions
Sugar Cookies
1. Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl and use an electric hand mixer) and beat until creamy and well-combined.
2. Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until completely combined.
3. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
4. Gradually add dry ingredients into wet until completely combined.
5. Lay out a large piece of plastic wrap and transfer approximately half of the dough onto the wrap (dough will be quite sticky at this point, that's OK!).
6. Cover with clear wrap and mold into a disk. Repeat with remaining cookie dough in another piece of cling wrap. Transfer dough to refrigerator and chill for at least 2-3 hours
7. Once dough has finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
8. Generously dust a clean surface with flour and deposit one chilled cookie dough disk onto the surface. Lightly flour the dough and roll out to 1/8" (for thinner, crispier cookies) or 1/4" (for thicker, softer cookies). Continue to add flour as needed both on top of and beneath the dough so that it doesn't stick.
9. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes and use a spatula to transfer shapes to prepared baking sheet.
10. Bake on 350F (175C) for 9-10 minutes, or until edges just begin to turn lightly golden brown.
11. Allow cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before moving and frosting.
Sugar Cookie Frosting
1. Combine sugar, 2 Tablespoons of milk, corn syrup, and vanilla extract in a medium-sized bowl and stir until combined. If frosting is too thick, add more milk, about a teaspoon at a time, until the frosting is thick but pipeable. If you accidentally add too much milk, add powdered sugar until desired texture is reached.
2. If coloring the frosting, divide into bowls and color as desired at this point.
3. Transfer frosting to a piping bag with a piping tip (I used Wilton 5), or place in a Ziploc bag and snip a small piece of the corner off (not as neat, but this will still work, just take care that the frosting isn’t so thick that it breaks open the seam of the bag when you are squeezing).
4. Pipe frosting on cookies and decorate with decorative candies, if desired.
5. Allow frosting to harden before enjoying (this took several hours for me and may vary for you depending on the consistency of your frosting)
6. Keep uneaten cookies sealed in an airtight container at room temperature.
