Cookies Recipes

A Kid’s Guide to Making Sunspot Cookies

The Sun is a star, made of trillions upon trillions of tons of ionized gas, called plasma. That’s a little hard to make at home, so our version trades in helium and hydrogen for butter and sugar! For these cookies, we’re using chocolate chips for sunspots, but what are the real ones made of? Sunspots are areas on the Sun where the solar magnetic field is particularly twisted up — this actually cools down the gas in these regions, making them appear dark to our eyes. Sunspots help scientists study the Sun’s activity, too! The Sun goes through cycles of activity that last about 11 years. During periods of high activity, it often releases bursts of fast-moving particles, gigantic flashes of light, and billion-ton clouds of solar material that go speeding off into space! These events are less common during periods of low activity. All of these events are connected to the state of the Sun’s magnetic field: when it’s more tangled and twisted, there are more of these events — and that also means more sunspots. That means the Sun sometimes have lots of spots, and sometimes it has very few, or even none at all, and it’s all related to how active the Sun is.

To make sunspot cookies, you’ll need a sugar cookie recipe of your choice! One recipe, along with instructions for solar decoration, is available here: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/sunspot-cookies/en/

For the cookie and icing recipe in this video, you’ll need:
• ¼ cup butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 ¼ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 ½ cup powdered sugar
• 3-8 teaspoons milk
• Chocolate chips or black gel icing to create sunspots

Learn more about sunspots and solar activity: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/solar-activity/en/

Music Credit: “Day Lights” from Universal Production Music

Video Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Scott Wiessinger (USRA): Lead Producer
Sarah Frazier (SGT): Lead Science Writer

This video is public domain and along with other supporting visualizations can be downloaded from NASA Goddard’s Scientific Visualization Studio at: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13579

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Video Transcription

[Music throughout] [How to make sunspot sugar cookies] Narrator: Hi, this is video abouthow to make sugar cookies that look like the Sun.First, you mix a quarter-cup of softened butterwith a quarter-cup of sugar. The butter should besoft so it will mix well. It was hard to keep everything in the bowl.Once it’s mixedinto sugary lumps, you can add one egg,half-a-teaspoon of vanilla extract, and thenmix it again. I had to keep pushing it down the sides of the bowlwith the spatula. Next,you add one-and-a-quarter-cups of flour,and one teaspoon of baking powder,and then mix it again.It took a long time to push the mix into a ball. I started withthe spoon and then used my hands.Finally it felt like dough. Spread some flour on a pastrycloth, or on the counter if you don’t have one, and then get some flour on both sidesof the dough and flatten it a little.Roll it out flat. Go in both directions and stop when it’s about as thick as a pencil.Then cut it out into Sun shapes. We tried two different ones. You can even usean empty jar to make circles. Put them on a metal pan covered with parchmentpaper if you have it. Bake them in the oven at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes. You should have an adult do this part. Carefully takethem off the pan and let them cool for a little while as you’re making the icing.Add milk slowly to one-and-a-half-cups of powdered sugar.Keep adding and mixinguntil it starts to feel a little runny.It goes fast at the end, so be careful. Divide into twobowls. To make yellow frosting, add three drops of yellow food coloring. To make orange, use two drops of yellow and one drop of red.Spread the yellow on first.Then drizzle the orange in a neat pattern.It doesn’t have to be perfect.Then you can use a toothpick to mix the orange in and make it look likethe Sun. Be creative!To make sunspots, we used chocolate chips and cake-writing gel.They are dark areas that are cooler than what’s around them. When the Sun isactive it has more. Sometimes the Sun is quiet and doesn’t have any, so we lefta few cookies plain. That’s it! You’re done! Except for the bestpart! Make sure to help clean up.Want to know more about the Sun? Go here to get some great info. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/sunExplore: Solar system & beyondNASA

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