2 Ingredient Sprinkle Buttons & Malted Milk Flower Cookies

I have a really cute idea for your Easter Baskets today! 2-Ingredient 

Candy Buttons! With just 2 ingredients you can make these adorable

(and easy) Candy Buttons that your kids will love you for!!

All you need is some Vanilla Candy Coating (which is what I used) 

or Candy Melts and some pretty Springtime nonpareils and you're ready 

to start! (I really liked the candy coating - Kroger brand of Candiquik -

because it tasted great and it came in a handy dandy microwaveable pan.)

The idea for these pretty candies came from one of my favorite blogs -

Passion 4 Baking. Manuela used a silicone baking mat to make her 

candy buttons.  You can make the buttons without the mat, but 

having a guide just makes it easier! If you wanted to make your 

own guide you could use a small round cookie cutter and draw

circles onto a sheet of parchment paper. Then place another 

sheet of parchment over that and pipe your circles.

So all you do is melt the candy coating in the microwave - or use a 

double boiler.  Then spoon the coating into circles onto a baking sheet 

lined with parchment paper, or do what I did and put the melted candy 

coating into a piping bag fitted with a medium round tip and pipe the 

mixture onto your silicone mat or baking sheet.

If you're going to pipe the mixture, let it cool for 5 minutes before 

putting it into the piping bag. The mixture will be runny at first, 

which will make it difficult to pipe. Gently squeeze the mixture

onto the center of each circle on the silicone mat. It will then spread 

further toward the outer edge of the circle. If it doesn't spread to the 

outer edge you can just use your finger or the back of a spoon to finish. 

Immediately sprinkle the candy circles with pretty nonpareils.

The candies harden pretty quickly. When they're set, just pop them 

out of the mat or peel off of the parchment. 

I love these pastel colored nonpareils by Wilton. They're

difficult to find right now - I order mine from here.

Wrap them up in little clear bags tied with pretty ribbon ....

or put them in a pretty container in your kitchen. 

But make sure that they don't disappear before you

make your cookies!

Now, onto the cookies! I found this recipe for Malted

Milk Flowers in a cookbook called The Australian Women's

Weekly Macaroons & Biscuits. Their cookies were decorated

with chocolate freckles and looked really cute.  I was going

to use ready made freckles with my cookies, but after ordering

several bags of different colors I ended up disappointed because

they just weren't pretty! So I made my own!

The cookies are soft and gently flavored with Malt in the cookie

dough and in the icing. If you love Malted Milk Balls like I do,

you'll love these!

The cookie dough was really easy to work with and I had

no trouble cutting out the cookies or moving them to the

baking sheet.

MALTED MILK FLOWERS

Ingredients:

125g (4 ounces) butter, softened

1/2 cup (110g) caster (superfine) sugar

1 egg

2 tablespoons golden syrup or treacle

1/3 cup (40g) malted milk powder

2 1/2 cups (375g) plain (all purpose) flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

Sprinkle Buttons or ready made chocolate Freckles

Malt Icing:

1 1/2 cups (240g) icing (confectioners') sugar

2 tablespoons malted milk powder

2 tablespoons milk, approximately

Beat butter, sugar and egg in a small bowl with

electric mixer until combined, transfer to large bowl;

stir in golden syrup and sifted dry ingredients, in two

batches. Knead dough lightly on floured surface until

smooth. Cover, refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 150C/300F. Line oven trays with

parchment.

Roll dough between sheets of parchment paper until

1/4 inch thick. Cut 3 inch flowers from dough; place 

flowers about 1 inch apart on trays. Bake about 18

minutes. Cool on trays.

Meanwhile, make malt icing: 

Sift icing sugar and malted milk powder into small

heatproof bowl; stir in enough milk to make a thick

paste. Stir over small saucepan of simmering water 

until icing is spreadable. Add a bit of pink food

coloring if desired.

Spread cookies with icing; top cookies with a

sprinkle button. Makes 36. Store cookies in an

airtight container for up to a week.

What a pretty and delicious way to use your Sprinkle Buttons!

Hope you enjoy these recipes and visit again soon!! xo!