Your Kids will Love these Easy-to-Make Animal-Shaped Quick Dessert Recipes

As rewarding as parenthood is, on some rare days it feels like your kids scan be quite a handful, to put it subtly. For such days, when they get absolutely fussy with their meals, we are talking about the age where they can easily eat whole food and the occasional sugary morsels. Here are some dessert ideas that will interest your little or mid-sized tot and who knows you might find this as a cue to bond with your kids.

Pug Mark Cookies(Makes 24 cookies)

Ingredients

• 225 gm butter
• 200 gm sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 250 gm flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 24 dark chocolate chips or broken Cadbury Dairy Milk bar (big beans)
• 1 bag choco chips (smaller beans you’ll need approx 100 of them)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 180°C, let it preheat as you prepare the baking sheet with a layer of parchment paper and then set aside.
2. Fix your stand mixer or grab your hand mixer. Take a bowl and cream butter with sugar. Crack in the egg and splash the vanilla and whip.
3. Mix flour, salt and baking soda and powder in another bowl. Add these to the butter mixture in 3 batches, mixing in each turn. A dough will form when mixed.
4. Take an ice cream scoop or use your hands to make small balls of the dough. You can roll this dough in a layer of powdered sugar.
5. Place each at least 1 inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes, keeping a close watch. Take it out once done and let it cool a tad.
6. Take the biggest chunks to form the bottom paw pad and press into the lower half of each of the warm cookies. Press to mould into shape.
7. Arrange the smaller choco chips on top to complete the pugmarks, 4 each, on each cookie.
8.  

Oreo sheep(Makes 12)

Ingredients

• 12 Oreo cookies
• 170 gm white chocolate chips
• 1 pack of mini marshmallows (cut them down to resemble small pocks of wool)
• Chocolate chips or candy eyeballs (24 either)

Instructions

1. Twist the Oreos and remove the cream filling from 12 of the cookie halves. Set the plain cookie halves aside.
2. Melt the white chocolate chips, using the double boiler method or in the microwave in 30-second intervals while stirring in between. The white chocolate will be completely smooth in the end.
3. Take an Oreo cookie half and dunk it into the melted white chocolate. Quickly take it out using a spoon or mini tongs and while the white chocolate is still wet, press mini marshmallows all over the top of the cookie to make a fuzzy texture like wool. If this somehow isn't sticking enough, consider cooking the marshmallow over low flame, until it just about starts to fuse and stick to each other.
4. Use chocolate chips or candy eyeballs and attach them near the top of the Oreo for the sheep's eyes.
5. Allow the white chocolate to set and harden and hold the marshmallows.
6. Repeat with the remaining 11 plain Oreo halves until you have 12 adorable Oreo sheep.

Simple Oatmeal Hooter Owl

Ingredients

• 200 gm instant oats
• 1 litre milk
• 120 gm gur (chopped)
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• A pinch of salt

Toppings:

• Thin apple slices
• blueberries
• strawberry halves
• coconut flakes

Instructions

1. Take a non-stick saucepan or a plain one and boil the oats in milk over medium flame.
2. Once it starts to heat up, add the jaggery pieces and the slices.
3. Let the porridge thicken as the jaggery melts. Make sure to stir with a spoon so that the ingredients mix and cook faster. This should take not more than 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and pour or ladle into serving bowls once thick enough.
4. While still hot, take your fruit pieces and get creative. The bananas will be the eyes and you can place blueberries on them to become the pupil. The apple slices become the owl’s wings. One strawberry half becomes the owl's nose and the coconut flakes its feathers. You can also use diced apples, kiwis or semi-circle bananas to make the chest feather markings of the owl.