Cute Hedgehog Cookies – An Easy Recipe for Baking with Kids in Autumn

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Bake your own adorable hedgehog cookies! These little autumn cookies made with spelt flour and ground hazelnuts are easy to make and perfect for baking with kids. The cute hedgehog cookies are decorated with chocolate and sprinkles, making them a wonderful recipe for the autumn season.

Summer is slowly but surely coming to an end, and autumn is gradually taking over. The first corn mazes are opening here, the first pumpkin recipes are being tried there, and at our house, it’s slowly time for the first autumn cookies.

Because just like many children, my Minis love baking cookies – especially when the cookies have fun shapes and can be decorated creatively afterwards!

After already showing you our delicious mushroom cookies and our crispy, colorful autumn leaf cookies, today we have another autumn favorite: cute little hedgehog cookies.

The best part: You don’t need a special cookie cutter for these adorable hedgehog cookies. The hedgehogs are simply shaped by hand – and that is exactly what makes them such a wonderful recipe for baking with kids.

Our Recipe for Cute Little Hedgehog Cookies

These hedgehog cookies are easy, delicious, and quick to prepare. The cookie dough is made with just a few ingredients and is then shaped into little hedgehogs.

The shaping is especially fun for my Minis. With just a few simple steps, a little ball of dough turns into an adorable hedgehog – no complicated cookie cutters needed.

After baking, the hedgehog cookies are decorated with dark chocolate and chocolate sprinkles. This gives them their characteristic spiky hedgehog look.

And if one hedgehog ends up a little wonkier or bigger than another: That’s simply part of the “nature” of baking with kids!

Print Recipe 

Ingredients

Cookie dough for approx. 50 hedgehog cookies

• 250 g butter
• 100g powdered sugar
• 300 g flour
• 150 g ground hazelnuts
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar (15g)
• 2 egg yolks

Decoration

• 150 g dark chocolate couverture (we used Pickerd cocoa couverture*)
• White chocolate shavings and/or brown chocolate sprinkles

Baking accessories

Kitchen scale, mixing bowl, kitchen knife, cooling rack, saucepan and heatproof bowl for a bain-marie, parchment paper, toothpicks (By the way, you don’t need a hedgehog cookie cutter. The cute little hedgehog shape is created simply with your hands.)

How to Make the Hedgehog Cookies

Prepare the cookie dough:

• Weigh or measure all ingredients and knead them together in a mixing bowl until you have a smooth dough. Chill for at least 30–60 minutes. If the dough feels too sticky, add a little more flour.

Shape the little hedgehogs:

• For the hedgehog cookies, shape small balls from the cookie dough. They should be slightly smaller than table tennis balls.
• Roll each ball once across the work surface using the palm of your hand so that it becomes oval or egg-shaped.
• Carefully pinch out a small hedgehog nose at one end of the dough shape using your thumb and index finger. (See the step-by-step pictures.)
• Place the little hedgehogs on a baking tray lined with parchment paper.
• Place the hedgehog cookies in the preheated oven and bake at 175°C / 350°F (top and bottom heat) for approximately 15–17 minutes.
• Then transfer to a cooling rack and let cool completely.

And don’t worry: The hedgehogs don’t all have to look exactly the same. Those little differences are what make homemade hedgehog cookies so adorable!

Decorate the hedgehog cookies with chocolate:

• While the hedgehog cookies are cooling, melt the chocolate couverture in a bain-marie.
• Hold each hedgehog cookie by its “nose” and dip approximately two-thirds of the cookie into the melted chocolate. Allow the excess chocolate to drip off and place the cookies on parchment paper.
• Sprinkle the still-melted chocolate with white and/or brown chocolate sprinkles. This gives the hedgehogs their characteristic spiky look.
• To draw the faces, dip the tip of a toothpick into the melted chocolate and draw two eyes and a little nose onto the face of each hedgehog (the end of the cookie that was not dipped in chocolate).
• Now all that’s left to do is let the chocolate set – and your adorable hedgehog cookies are ready!

Baking Hedgehog Cookies with Kids – Our Tips

The lovely thing about this recipe is that children can take part in many of the steps.

Little Minis can, for example:

• weigh the ingredients,
• knead the ingredients together,
• shape the dough balls,
• create the little hedgehog noses,
• decorate the finished cookies with sprinkles, and
• draw the little faces.

Of course, an adult should always help when working with knives, a hot oven, or melted chocolate couverture.

Shaping the hedgehogs is especially fun for children. There is no “right” or “wrong” here – every little hedgehog can look a little different.

Preparation in pictures

Why Hedgehog Cookies Are Perfect for Autumn

For me, hedgehogs simply belong to autumn. When the leaves turn colorful, the days get shorter, and we start spending more time indoors again, our cozy baking season begins too.

That’s why these hedgehog cookies for autumn are perfect for the coffee table, in a lunch box, or on a little autumn-themed birthday table.

And of course, they are also a lovely idea if you want to bake cookies with kids during autumn.

My Minis and I wish you and your Minis lots of fun baking, shaping, and decorating these little hedgehog cookies – and a wonderful start to the colorful autumn season!

Yours, Lia

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Have you baked the recipe?

How exciting! We're really happy about that! We are pleased that we were able to delight you with our recipe. Feel free to share your treat with us on Instagram using the hashtag #backenmitminis.