Color Changing COVID Thumbprint Cookies

Because all the talk of COVID variants and mutations made me hungry.

Tools & Ingredients

• Sugar Cookie Dough
• Watkins Food Coloring:
• blue + red + green to mix your own black
• Cotton Swab (optional)
• Powdered Sugar
• Sunflower Seeds
• Raspberry or Strawberry Jelly in a Decorating Bottle
• Throat drops (optional)
• Mini Screwdriver Set
• Aluminum foil
• Chopstick (optional)
• Paring knife
• Rolling pin

Cookie Template

• Downloadable file (provided)
• Template Material: thin plastic or coated paper (like from an empty milk carton)
• Craft knife or other cutting blade to cut the template material

The food coloring I used was Watkins Food Coloring (made with 100% Natural Vegetable Juices and Spices).

I mixed:

• Blue: 12 drops
• Red: 10 drops
• Green: 4 drops

I used about half of the blue bottle to make enough black to add to the dough to make the gray color I wanted.

The cookies were a nice gray color until I baked them. After baking the black food coloring in the dough changed into a pink color. If you use regular food coloring your cookies probably won't change color.

You can make your sugar cookie dough from scratch or buy it premade; it doesn’t really matter. I used this recipe from Food Network and cut in in half to make my dough.

Once you have your dough, mix in enough black food coloring to turn it a nice gray color. Don't use all of the food coloring, set aside enough to color the eyes later on.

Wrap the dough in plastic and set in in the refrigerator for about an hour.

Download the template in either .pdf or .svg form. I used the lid from my takeout container and cut it out using the .svg file on my Cricut.

If I had to use alternate tools and materials, I would have chosen to print the template on paper and used the printout as a guide cut the shape out of an empty cardboard milk carton.

Remove the chilled dough from the refrigerator and roll it out into a 1/4" sheet. Use powdered sugar to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin and rolling surface.

Place your template on top of the sheet of dough, hold it in place with one hand and with the other hand use a paring knife to trace around the template.

If the dough becomes sticky and difficult to work with, take a break and allow the dough to chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

The half recipe that I used should make about 9 cookies.

Place the cookies in the refrigerator for 10 minutes to let them harden up a but before the next step.

Wrap the ends of mini screwdrivers in foil.

Use the ends as stamps to makes indentations that you will fill with jelly later.

Use your thumb to create a mouth.

Use a cotton swab, or your finger, to paint the eye sockets with black food coloring. 

Fill the mouth will jelly and then use the sunflower seeds to make teeth for the cookies. Push the pointed end of each sunflower seed into the dough. Or leave the pointed ends exposed to give your cookies vampire teeth. Your choice. Use as many seeds as you’d like.

Fill each indentation with jelly. Use a chopstick or other utensil to spread out the jelly more evenly. 

Bake at 375 F for 9 minutes.

This is when the magic happens and the cookies turn from gray to pink.

Repaint the eyes if you'd like.

If you really want to lean into the COVID theme, make some sprinkles out throat drops by putting them into a bag and smashing them with a rolling pin. I used Cherry Honey Ricola and I thought it was going to taste awful, but it was delicious. When the drops are all crushed up they look like sugar sprinkles. Lightly sprinkle them over the cookies.