The soon to be six year old son of dear friends started kindergarten this past week. On the morning of his second day he officially declared that “kindergarten is even better than pre-school.” I love that! Not meant to ‘one up’ him, his mom overheard another kid in his class tell his mom that “kindergarten was better than Christmas!” Hopefully a small bit of that enthusiasm will follow them throughout their schooling.

Their days are soon to be filled with all the cool stuff kindergartners get to do, not the least of which will be tackling the basics of the English language. The alphabet motif is one that permeates kid culture in song and play and product. So in celebration of the back to school season, I’m dedicating this week to those lovely 26 letters in their many forms.

Let’s begin with something sweet! And what better starting point than Cookie Monster’s classic ‘C is for Cookie.’

Australian foodie Billy Law tackled alphabet cookies this past holiday season and shares the trio of recipes he used (original butter, mixed spice and jasmine & green tea) to make the cookies pictured below. While your cookies are baking, spend some time exploring his beautiful blog A Table for Two.

For kids with food allergies, the folks at Martha Stewart have adapted this recipe for maple sugar cookies from Cybele Pascal’s “The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook: Two Hundred Gourmet and Homestyle Recipes for the Food Allergic Family,” (Vital Health Publishing, 2005).  See an instructional video here.

Rolled Maple Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G Egg Replacer
* 3 tablespoons rice or oat milk
* 3/4 cup oat flour, plus more for rolling
* 3/4 cup barley flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
* 3/4 cup maple sugar
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* Currants, or raisins, for decorating (optional)
* Dairy-free chocolate chips, for decorating (optional)
* Unsweetened coconut flakes, for decorating (optional)

Directions
1. In a small bowl, whisk together egg replacer with 2 tablespoons rice milk; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together oat and barley flours, salt, and baking powder; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream shortening and sugar until blended. Add egg substitute mixture, vanilla extract, and remaining 1 tablespoon rice milk; mix until incorporated. Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if necessary.

2. On a work surface, gather dough and form into a disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

3. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place chilled dough on a lightly floured work surface; if dough seems dry, sprinkle with a few drops of water and knead gently to work in. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thickness. Using 3-inch alphabet cookie cutters, cut out desired shapes. Firmly press currants, chocolate chips, or coconut flakes onto cookies, if desired. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking mat; bake for 8 minutes. Transfer sheet to a wire rack to cool; let cool completely on sheet before removing. Makes 15.

You can find 3″ and 4″ letter cookie cutters at Kitchen Collectibles. I like the collegiate style font of these copper cutters. Also worth noting, they carry a 22 piece Hebrew alphabet set!

For teeny tiny letters, there’s this 26 letter set by Fox Run. Each cookie cutter is a mere 1″ tall - a great size for writing messages on cakes or individually topping cupcakes.

No patience for cookie cutters? Shape your alphabet cookies by hand using this recipe for a special vanilla dough that handles like modeling clay (and makes delicious cookies).

A fun activity to practice alphabet skills and manual dexterity.  For the adult, I’m thinking it would be cool to experiment writing words in script using long ‘ropes’ of dough!

And finally to inspire your own literary bake off, here’s some ‘drool worthy’ inspiration from the creative folks on Flickr.

1. Alphabet Cookies, 2. Polka-Dot Initial Cookies, 3. Valentine letter cookies, 4. Letter sugar cookie toppers, 5. 77 alphabet cookies, 6. Edible alphabet 2, 7. Icing Cookie- H for Harry, 8. This cookie brought to you by the letter B

This post contains essential information towards obtaining your Gastronomy merit badge. Leave a comment on this post or a question for the Grand Poobah below, or trackback from your own site.