Kendra's Treats

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! I couldn’t find a green dessert that I wanted to make for today so I decided to go with the whole “pot of gold at the end of the rainbow” part of St. Patrick’s day. I found rainbow sugar cookies on several different web sites and sort of combined several of them to come up with this recipe. You will need food coloring gel to get the vibrant colors. I’m not going to lie; by the time I finished these cookies I was wondering if they were really worth it. And that is really saying something since my family tells me that I won’t make something if it doesn’t have 10 steps and dirty every dish in the house. However, I was pleased with the results. I prefer sugar cookies with icing and next time I might make rainbow cookie sandwiches with icing in between. =)

Rainbow Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 whole egg
1 whole egg yolks
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat well, for about 2 minutes. Add the whole egg and 1 yolk, continuing to mix until combined. Stir in the vanilla extract and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder and whisk until sifted. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture about 1 cup at a time, stirring with the paddle attachment (not the whisk) to incorporate each cup. Do not over mix.
Divide the dough into six equal portions – it helps if you have a kitchen scale for this. Using gel food coloring (gel works so much better for vibrant colors than standard food coloring), color each layer a color of the rainbow.
Place dough in individual ziplock bags or saran wrap and refrigerate until firm, about an hour or two. One at a time, roll colors into approximately 6×9 inch rectangles. Refrigerate each layer after rolling, and then add subsequent layers on top in rainbow color order.
When all layers have been stacked, trim edges for a neat rectangle. Wrap again in saran wrap and freeze until very firm. Slice strips across the 6 inch side about 1/4 inch thick and cut each strip in half.
When you are ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 6-10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool the cookie sheet in between baking each batch.
Leftover dough can be stored in the freezer for a few weeks
*recipe adapted from Good Life Eats