Watermelon Cookies

Ari loves watermelon.  Here he is last year, just barely a year old, with his mama at a Blue Grass festival in Kentucky.  What could be better on a hot day; slurping on watermelon and listening to music?  His little face, eating this watermelon is my inspiration for today's post.

Today, with most of the country in the 90s, I decided, "why not bake a cool cookie to forget about the heat."  (This is actually a cookie I've made before...revisited.  Remember Spumoni cookies from last August?)  With a few changes in flavoring and in shaping, I came up with these.

 The unusual flavor of watermelon comes from a two packages of Kool-Aid Watermelon/Cherry Twist powder (no sugar added).  It took going to three supermarkets before I could find that flavor, so I suggest you go to KoolAid.com and type in your zip code to find where the closest store that sells it is to you.  The "seeds" are Valrhona Pearls, which I find at Whole Foods, but you could easily use mini chocolate chips as a substitute.  They need to chill, so you can even make them up the day before.  Serve them with an ice cold glass of lemonade and no one will mind the heat!

Watermelon Cookies

(You will make up the recipe twice)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 pkgs. Watermelon~Cherry Kool-Aid powder
1/2 cup Valrhona Pearls or Mini Chocolate Chips

In the KitchenAid, using the paddle attachment (or a large bowl with a hand mixer), cream the butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the egg and beat well.  Add the salt and extract.  Add the flour and mix well.  For the "rind", separate the dough: two-thirds will be green and leave one-third vanilla.  For the green dough, I first added a couple of drops of green food coloring to make a lighter green, then, I added a few more drops to create a darker green.  I thought doing this would give me a more natural coloring of the rind.

Line two 9"x5" loaf pans with plastic wrap.  Pat the green dough(s) in first on the bottom

Next, add a layer of the vanilla dough.

Place the loaf pans in the refrigerator to chill while you make up the recipe again.
Repeat the ingredients and steps, above, adding the two packages of Kool-Aid and a few drops of red food coloring.  Lastly, add the Pearls or Mini Chips to the dough.  Divide dough in half (I actually used a scale to ensure the same amount).
Remove the pans from the refrigerator and pat the "watermelon" dough on top of the vanilla.

Wrap the plastic wrap over the top and refrigerate dough for 2-3 hours or overnight.
Remove from the oven and place on a cutting board.  You will cut the dough, longwise (horizontal), then makes angle cuts, you should get about 5-6 slices.

Preheat oven 350F-degrees.  Place cookies on parchment lined baking sheets.  Bake 10-12 minutes.  Be careful not to over bake.  Don't make your watermelons look like they've browned.  Enjoy!