Happy Hedgehog No Bake Cookies

This month the Virtual Book Club for Kids author is Marcus Pfister. For our monthly read we enjoyed The Happy Hedgehog. We liked the story of the little hedgehog who tries to figure out what he can accomplish in order to make himself happy, and discovers it's really just being himself that brings the greatest happiness.

We decided to follow up our reading by creating Happy Hedgehog cookies!

I wanted to make sure Big Brother could be involved as much as possible, so we made a "no bake" recipe. 

Several years ago a preschool teacher friend shared a great kid friendly recipe which was made from peanut butter, wheat germ, and honey. As I couldn't find the recipe again we made up our own. I have to admit our first attempt didn't work at all, and we turned them into granola bars instead. This was our second attempt, and although they still didn't look quite like I was expecting they were definitely hands on for Big Brother and he took a lot of pride in the process and product. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sunbutter (you could also use peanut butter or another nut butter of your choice)

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp. cocoa powder

1/4 cup natural shredded coconut

1/2 cup wheat germ

chocolate "sprinkles"

small handful of slivered almonds

small handful of chocolate chips (we only had regular chips but mini would work better)

Directions: 

1. Combine the sunbutter, honey, cocoa powder, coconut, and wheat germ into a medium sized bowl. 

As there is no cooking with heat, Big Brother could really do almost all the ingredients on his own. 

2. Mix the ingredients throughly. (It got a little hard, so I did help at the end.) 

3. Refrigerate the mix 3 to 5 minutes to make it easy to handle. Place the sprinkles into a small dish. 

4. Use a spoon to scoop out some of the mixture and form into a small cylinder, or log shape. Pinch one end of the log to create a nose for the hedgehog. Roll the other end of the cookie in the dish of sprinkles. 

5. Use the chocolate chips and almond slices to create eyes, a nose, and ears. (Again, smaller chocolate chips would probably work a little better.) 

6. When finished refrigerate again for a half hour and then enjoy. I would recommend storing any uneaten cookies in the refrigerator. 

Our treats were eagerly enjoyed by both boys, I didn't even have a chance to grab a picture!

Happy Hedgehog No Bake Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 cup sunbutter (you could also use peanut butter or another nut butter of your choice)

1/4 cup honey

2 tsp. cocoa powder

1/4 cup natural shredded coconut

1/2 cup wheat germ

chocolate "sprinkles"

small handful of slivered almonds

small handful of chocolate chips (we only had regular chips but mini would work better)

Directions: 

1. Combine the sunbutter, honey, cocoa powder, coconut, and wheat germ into a medium sized bowl. 

2. Mix the ingredients throughly. 

3. Refrigerate the mix 3 to 5 minutes to make it easy to handle. Place the sprinkles into a small dish. 

4. Use a spoon to scoop out some of the mixture and form into a small cylinder, or log shape. Pinch one end of the log to create a nose for the hedgehog. Roll the other end of the cookie in the dish of sprinkles. 

5. Use the chocolate chips and almond slices to create eyes, a nose, and ears. 

6. When finished refrigerate again for a half hour, and then enjoy. I would recommend storing any uneaten cookies in the refrigerator. 

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