Rainbow Butter Cookies
Soft and buttery just like any classic butter cookie - but with a colorful rainbow twist.
Equipment
- stand mixer with paddle attachment
- mixing bowls
- 2 + 3 tbsp ice cream scoops optional
- food color gels
- food safe gloves optional
- rubber spatula
- parchment paper
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 3 cup all purpose flour 360 g
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 226 g
- 1 cup sugar 200 g
- 1 ea large egg, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- 2 - 3 tbsp mik
Instructions
Preparing Dough
- Combine butter, sugar and vanilla into a large bowl. Use a stand mixer with paddle attachment and cream on high until light and fluffy - about 3 minutes.
- Add egg and mix on medium low until well combined.
- Add all purpose flour and salt to bowl. Mix on low until until most of the flour is combined, and then turn on medium until just combined.
- Add 2 - 3 tablespoons of milk to the dough and mix on low until fully absorbed.
Creating Hidden Rainbow
- Use a 3 tbsp ice cream scoop to scoop out dough to color. Use 2 drops of red food coloring and mix using your hands, or using a small rubber spatula. Place in the large bowl and repeat for the remaining rainbow colors. You should be left with roughly ⅓ to ½ of the dough uncolored which is fine because this will be the outer layer of the cookie.
- Scoop out about 2 tablespoons of uncolored dough and flatten between your palms. It should be the length of your palm.
- Scoop out about 1 tsp of red dough and place along one outer edge of the uncolored dough. Repeat with each color and place them against one another until the last color reaches the opposite side of your palm.
- Roll the uncolored dough up and towards each other. You want to want to completely cover the colored dough.
- Roll the dough ball in the sprinkles to coat about ¾ of it. Place on baking sheet (unsprinkled side down) and repeat with remaining dough.
- Refrigerate cookies for 2 hours to allow the butter to solidify. It will help to keep the cookies from spreading too much during baking.
Baking Cookies
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Remove cookies from refrigerator and bake for about 15 minutes, or until you see light browning along bottom edges.
- Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Allow to cool before enjoying.
Notes
- Utilize food safe gloves or a small rubber spatula when coloring the dough to avoid getting your hands stained with food coloring.
- As you are adding each small colored piece of dough alongside each other, they should reach just the edge of your palm, but not extend past the uncolored dough. The trick is to lay the colors right up against each other but not on top of each other.
- Coloring and creating the hidden rainbow must be done prior to refrigerating the dough. If you do need to refrigerate before coloring, make sure to wrap the dough in plastic wrap. Remove from refrigerator about 1 to 2 hours before beginning the hidden rainbow steps.
- Be ready! Have all the items needed close by and ready to use before you begin. It will help speed up the process.
- You can easily mix all 6 colors of the rainbow using only red, yellow and blue food coloring. To create orange, use 1 drop of red and 1 drop of yellow. To create green, use 1 drop of yellow and 1 drop of blue. To create purple, use 1 drop of red and 1 drop of blue.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!