Rainbow Cookies

I visited by BFF last weekend. Thankfully. I personally think we leave it too long between visits but considering how much it costs to go visit her, and that I’m the one who always travels, I can’t really afford more frequent trips. Stupid airline prices.

Anyway, it was kind of for her birthday since that’s in 2 weeks, so I made her something special. Last year I made her an epic Rainbow Cake, so this year I thought I’d make her rainbow cookies! They took a while but were totally worth it. I personally think they look smashing!

I took some into work and since I work in a small town with a bunch of men who are stereotypically Australian, they did not appreciate my hard work. Most wouldn’t even eat them because they thought they looked too ‘out there’. I had a few comments about going to kindergarten, with one colleague saying they looked like crayons. Sigh. Fairly sure if I wanted to please these guys it would be with vanilla ice-cream and chocolate topping and not fancy baked goods and intricate desserts.

You should make them though because I’m sure you have far more appreciation for colourful, fun baking.

Rainbow Cookies

3/4 cup caster sugar 350g butter 1 egg 1 tsp vanilla 3 cups plain flour

1 egg blended for egg wash 5 or 6 different colour food dyes (I use Wilton gels which have always produce vibrant colours)

Place sugar, butter, egg and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Mix at low speed until just combined.

Add flour and mix until the dough is smooth.

Divide the dough into six equal portions. You can weigh to be exact if you’re a tad OCD like me.

Dye each of the individual portions with the different colours to make a red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple dough. Prepare to use a good amount of dye to get a bright colour. During baking   the dough will darken just slightly.

Flatten each colour between parchment paper and refrigerate about an hour until the dough is firm enough to work with.

Working one colour at a time, keeping the other colours in the fridge, roll out the hard dough into a long strip about 30cm wide and 3/4cm thick.

Brush the egg wash over the top of the first layer.

Repeat with the other colours. Be sure to add egg wash between each layer or they’ll fall apart in the oven.

Once the block is assembled refrigerate it for another 30 minutes to let it harden again.

Slice segments to make cookies

Lay each cookie on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake each sheet for 12 to 15 minutes until the cookies are slightly firm to the touch.