March Cookie of the Month:
Rainbows are just for the Irish to show where a pot of gold might be, but I guarantee if you follow your baking skills to the end of this rainbow you will be proud of accomplishing this recipe!
I have never made a layered cookie like this before, and if you have, then kudos to you because it is a challenge. To achieve the layered look of these cookies you make one dough, but then measure sections of dough into different pieces, dye the dough a color of the rainbow, and then layer on top of each other.
The cookie dough makes and looks like a sugar cookie mix, but when the cookies bake they come out of the oven as a light, crispy cookie with a nice crunch. They don't lay heavy in your stomach, which could be a blessing and a curse because then you can enjoy more!
Even though this was the cookie of the month for the March issue of the Food Network Magazine this is a cookie you can make for many occasions, such as birthday parties, summer BBQs, or just to spread some sunshine around your office.
As a side note, you will need a food scale to portion out the different sizes of cookie dough.
Now, let's get baking!
Active: 1 hour / Total: 3 hours / Makes: about 36 cookies
Ingredients:
- 2.5 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon of each red, orange, yellow, blue, green, and purple gel food coloring
- 1 cup white candy melts (I found them at Michael's!)
Instructions:
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter, granulated sugar and confectioner's sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg yolks and vanilla until smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and gradually beat in the flour mixture until the dough just comes together.
- Divide the dough into 6 pieces:
- 2 large pieces (approx. 7oz each), tint 1 Red and the other Orange*
- 2 medium pieces (approx. 5oz each), tint 1 yellow and the other green
- 2 small pieces (approx. 3 oz each), tint 1 blue and the other purple
- While you mix the color with the dough use gloves if mixing by hand or a spatula in a bowl
- On a floured sheet of parchment paper, roll the purple dough into a 7-inch log (about 3/4 inch thick) and set aside. Using a rolling pin, roll out the remaining dough into rectangles on separate floured sheets of parchment paper, dusting with more flour as needed.**
- Blue: 3.5 in by 7 in
- Green: 5 in by 7.5 in
- Yellow: 6 in by 8 in
- Orange: 7 in by 8.5 in
- Red: 8 in by 9 in
- Tightly wrap the blue dough around the purple loge, keeping the dough in a log shape. Pinch the seam where the 2 dough's come together to close. Continue wrapping the logs with the dough: green, then yellow, then orange, and finally red. Wrap the whole log in plastic wrap and freeze until firm, about 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Trim the ends of the log to have nice even ends then slice into 3/8 inch-thick rounds (I used a ruler). Arrange cookies about 1 inch apart on 2 unlined baking sheets and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.
- Bake one pan at a time until the cookies are just set around the edges and golden on the bottom, about 10-15 minutes. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to cookie racks to cool.
- While cookies are cooling, put the candy melts in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring, until smooth, total approx. 2 minutes depending on the power of your microwave. Allow to cool for 1-3 minutes. Transfer into a resealable plastic bag, filling from the corner of the plastic bag up. Snip a small section of the corner (be careful, if you snip off too much the melted candy will come pouring out) and pipe small clouds on the ends of each rainbow. I did 3-4 clouds on each side of the cookie depending on how big the cookie was. Let clouds set at least 5 minutes.
- Store in a sealed Tupperware container for up to a week.
*I used A LOT of food coloring to make sure they were a bright, vibrant color. You can't over do it.
**I felt the dimensions o the rectangles were too large. I had a lot of extra dough left on the sides of the cookies so I would suggest making the rectangle dimensions a little smaller than what is suggested. It may have been me, but this is one of those recipes that I may need to make again to figure out what the best way is.
May the luck of the Irish always be on your side and who knows, maybe you fill find a pot O'gold at the end of your rainbows!
I hope you enjoy baking and eating these cookies! Stay tuned for April's Cookie of the Month!
No comments
Post a Comment