Matariki is soon to become a public holiday for Aotearoa (New Zealand). This is what inspired me to get in the kitchen and make these Galaxy Cookies with my kids (Tamariki). So they could teach me more about Matariki.
I say they teach me, as when it comes to Matariki it is not something I learnt about as a child, but my kids learn about it each year at school. The school community all comes together one morning to celebrate together, share kai (food), enjoy the tamariki sing waiata (māori songs) and the kapa haka (māori performing arts) group perform.
Why This Recipe Works
- Easy to do but the galaxy glaze looks so good.
- A great baking project to take on with kids.
- The perfect way to talk about and honour Te Iwa O Matariki (The nine stars of Matariki)
Ingredients you will need
To make galaxy cookies you will need star-shaped cookies. My simple sugar cookie recipe is perfect for this. You then need the ingredients to make a simple glaze, for this, I just use icing sugar, milk, vanilla essence and food colouring. You can then add star-shaped sprinkles or slilver balls to represent Te Iwa O Matariki (The 9 stars of Matariki).
For a really high gloss glaze finish you can also add 1 Tablespoon of light corn syrup or honey. I will talk about why in the tips for the recipe.
Substitutes
- Cookies: You do not need to use my sugar cookie recipe, you can use any sugar cookie recipe that you want that will meet your needs.
- Milk: The milk can actually be substituted for water if needed.
Step by step instructions
Step one: Make star-shaped cookies, you can use any recipe you like or try my simple sugar cookies. Combine the icing/glace ingredients (icing sugar, vanilla, milk) using a whisk. I did this in three small bowls so that each of my kids could have a bowl of icing
Step two: Watch the video tutorial above to see how we did the icing. Use toothpicks to dip small amounts of food colouring into the icing, use a toothpick to create swirl patterns. Once it is swirly enough, take a cookie and dip it into the icing, leave on a rack to harden.
Step three: While the icing is still soft add the edible silver balls or star sprinkles, 9 for each cookie representing the stars of Matariki
Repeat until all the cookies are iced, you can keep adding small amounts of food colouring and swirling the icing to create new patterns
Top Tips
Here is how you can make these galaxy cookies perfectly every time!
- Only use a little food colouring at a time, too much and the icing will just appear very dark and you won’t see the swirling colours, you will also end up with children with very colourful tongues and teeth when they eat them!
- For a really high gloss glaze finish you can also add 1 Tablespoon of light corn syrup or honey, I don’t tend to do this when just making the cookies at home. And haven’t for the images in this post, but you may get a better finish if you do.
- The trick with galaxy cookies is getting the consistency of the glaze correct, the glaze should be thick enough that it doesn’t all run off the cookie, but loose enough that you can easily dip the cookie into the glaze. Test one cookie, see how the glaze looks on the cookie after a couple of minutes, if it’s all run off the cookie it’s too thin.. add a tablespoon of icing sugar, if its not spread to an even smooth finish then it’s too thck… add a little more milk.
As I mentionned this recipe ended up on my website through honouring Matariki with my children. Since this was piblished I have created more recipes to Mānawatia a Matariki (celebrate/honour Matariki) with whānau (family).
- Pae Kūmara: A sweet potato pie decorated with pastry stars.
- Star Hot Chocolate Toppers the perfect way yo make a hot chocolate even more special, take it outside star gazing.
- Non-alcoholic mulled wine, a special warming drink for children to celebrate with.
- And not to forget the best most delicious mnost heart warming hot chocolate recipe your childrren will love.
Galaxy Cookies
Ingredients
- 20 Star shaped sugar cookies This sugar cookie recipe is good.
- 1 ½ C icing sugar (powdered confectionary sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 2-3 Tbsp milk
- 1 Tbsp honey or light corn syrup. optional
Instructions
- Make star-shaped cookies, you can use any recipe you like or try my simple sugar cookies. Combine the icing/glaze ingredients (icing sugar, vanilla, milk) using a whisk. I did this in three small bowls so that each of my kids could have a bowl of icing
- Watch the video tutorial above to see how we did the icing. Use toothpicks to dip small amounts of food colouring into the icing, use a toothpick to create swirl patterns. Once it is swirly enough, take a cookie and dip it into the icing, leave on a rack to harden
- While the icing is still soft add the edible silver balls or star sprinkles, 9 for each cookie representing the stars of Matariki
- Repeat until all the cookies are iced, you can keep adding small amounts of food colouring and swirling the icing to create new patterns
Video
Notes
Tips
- Only use a little food colouring at a time, too much and the icing will just appear very dark and you won’t see the swirling colours, you will also end up with children with very colourful tongues and teeth when they eat them!
- For a really high gloss glaze finish, you can also add 1 Tablespoon of light corn syrup or honey, I don’t tend to do this when just making the cookies at home. And haven’t for the images in this post, but you may get a better finish if you do.
- The trick with galaxy cookies is getting the consistency of the glaze correct, the glaze should be thick enough that it doesn’t all run off the cookie, but loose enough that you can easily dip the cookie into the glaze. Test one cookie, see how the glaze looks on the cookie after a couple of minutes, if it’s all run off the cookie it’s too thin.. add a tablespoon of icing sugar, if it’s not spread to an even smooth finish then it’s too thick… add a little more milk.
Ingredient Substitutions
- Cookies: You do not need to use my sugar cookie recipe, you can use any sugar cookie recipe that you want that will meet your needs.
- Milk: The milk can actually be substituted for water if needed.
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