Homemade Valentine Cookies

I think that I will take on the adventure of baking heart shaped cookies with my boys. You can see that I have decided to keep with the Valentine’s theme this week while discussing the Around the House topic or Tuesday Tip. (Still haven’t quite made up my mind. )


Many busy people opt for the ready-bake cookies in the refrigerated section, while others use a mix. Hmm, I wonder what the difference is between store bought and homemade. There could be a math lesson in this!

When presented with the possibility of participating in a project, they focused all of their attention on me. Their first question asked what sort of project it would be. I explained to them that it was a math and cookie project. You can imagine the puzzled looks that I received. I explained further: math is fun, cookies are fun, math and cookies are REALLY FUN. I had absolutely no problems keeping their attention during this math lesson!

• Refrigerated cookies - 24 cookies for $2.99 $1.50 per dozen
• Mix - 36 cookies for around $2.30   77 cents per dozen The mix that we found was $1.99. You must add an eggs and ½ cup of butter. If we assume 1 egg at 10 cents and 1 stick of butter at 20 cents it brings our cookies up to $2.30. This is barely over half of what the dough costs.
• I have a favorite recipe for Scotch shortbread. Am I drawn to this because of the Scottish blood running through my veins? Perhaps, but more likely it is because of it’s simplicity!

Scotch Shortbread - yield 24 cookies costs $.61    31 cents per dozen

A pound of margarine costs about 80 cents for 4 sticks making them 20 cents each. We need 1 ½ sticks costing 30 cents total. ¾ cup margarine = $.30

Sugar costs 50 cents per pound which is approximately 2 cups. That makes our quarter cup cost only 6 cents! ¼ cup sugar = $.06

Flour also costs 50 cents per pound, but measures 4 cups. Our 2 cups will cost 25 cents. 2 cups all purpose flour = $.25

We are not including electricity costs for cooking these, nor the cost of making icing since we want to compare apples to apples. All must be baked and none have frosting. All of the calculations above were done by my K, 2nd grade, and 4th grade students. The boys even helped me gather some data. They were amazed at how much of a bargain we had when we make things ourselves. “Wow, Momma, that costs a lot! I don‘t think we should buy that.” Doesn’t every mother dream of those words coming from her children?

When we compare our homemade shortbread to the prepackaged cookies, we find that there is quite a difference. One of those differences is that the children will be proud of what they have done and will believe that their own cookies taste much better! But what you really want to know is, “How much did I save?” Shortbread cookies Liz Price = 79% off!