Baby Brontosaurus (Not Apatosaurus) Cookies

This one is for my inner eight year old, one more victim of O.C. Marsh and the great "bone wars", who has never quite gotten over the loss of the brontosaurus. I know it's just a name, but a "thunder lizard" by any other name is not the same.

I based these cookies on a cartoon drawing of a brontosaurus, from FunDraw.com. I traced the clip art right off the computer screen, onto wax paper, to use as a template for the main part of the body, but I got the neck a little short. So, just pretend they look like brontosauruses, or apatosauruses, or whatever you want to call them.

I made a half batch of sugar cookie dough, added green food coloring, and rolled it out. A half batch is enough to make 10-12 dinosaurs. I made six (plus one extra in case one crumbled), and rolled the rest of the dough into balls to freeze.

I cut one dinosaur for each child, minus the legs. For the legs, I cut two, "H" shapes, curved in at the top, to go with each dinosaur (see below). Then, I cut two notches in each dinosaur, kind of guessing on the width the baked cookies would be, where the legs would attach. (I should give a nod here to Design Sponge's "Bahhh-licious" sheep cracker design.)

At the last second, I stuck a chocolate chip "eye" in each cookie as well, before baking them for 14 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.


While they were still warm, I tested, and trimmed the notches, with a sharp knife.


When putting them together to serve, I found it was easiest to put the back legs on first, holding the dinosaur, and legs, with one hand, and then slipping in the front legs, with the other. Keeping the legs fairly short, allows them to balance easily, so they are sturdy enough to carry across the room, on a plate, without having them collapse.


It's great to be a homeschooler.