Rainbow Sugar Cookies
Chewy sugar cookies flavored with lemon, lime, blueberry and raspberry colored to look like a rainbow swirl.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 15 min
- Yield
- 12 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
Quantities are shown as originally provided.
- 226g or 1 cup g unsalted butter (softened)
- 350g or 1 ¾ cups g granulated sugar
- ¾ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp fine sea salt
- 1 large egg plus 1 yolk
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 365g or 2 ½ cups g all purpose flour
- Zest of 1 lemon
- Zest of 1 lime
- 1 ½ tablespoons raspberry or strawberry powder (from ground up freeze dried berries)
- 1 ½ tablespoons blueberry powder (from ground up freeze dried blueberries)
- 1 tsp lemon extract
Instructions
- 1
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter, sugar, soda, salt and vanilla. Beat until the butter and sugar is thoroughly creamed, it should be light and fluffy.
- 2
Add the egg and yolk and beat for another 60 seconds.
- 3
Add the flour and mix until the dough is well combined.
- 4
Set out 5 bowls. Weigh your dough - it should be around 1,000g. Divide it into 200g per bowl.
- 5
Into the first bowl add 1 tablespoon of raspberry (or strawberry powder) and a couple of drops of red food coloring. To get it to blend into the dough you can start with a rubber spatula or spoon but you’ll want to use your hands to squish it together and ‘knead’ to get the color and powder to distribute evenly.
- 6
Into the second bowl add the zest of the lemon and some yellow or orange-yellow food coloring, as well as a ¼ tsp lemon extract. Mix it in well.
- 7
Into the third bowl add the lime zest, some green gel food coloring and ¼ tsp lemon extract. Mix.
- 8
Into the fourth bowl add 1 tablespoon of the blueberry powder and some blue food gel. Mix.
- 9
Into the fifth bowl add ½ tablespoon of blueberry powder and ½ tablespoon of raspberry (or strawberry) powder as well as a couple of drops of purple food coloring. Mix.
- 10
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Set out two greased cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
- 11
Start with the red, divide it into two teaspoons per cookie (you should have about 12 portions). Next divide the yellow and set each 2 teaspoons next to the red.
- 12
Repeat this with all the dough colors, curving so each dough makes a circle (see photos and video) and placing the purple between the blue and red (or pink).
- 13
You’ll have 12 cookies with 5 colors of dough.
- 14
Place about ¼ cup of granulated sugar and a pinch of salt in a small bowl.
- 15
Take each clump of dough and gently squeeze it together to form a ball. Place it in between your palms and roll it to smush the dough together into one dough ball and swirl the colors together, about the size of a golf ball. Dip it face down in the sugar then set on the cookie sheet.
- 16
Repeat with all the cookies. Bake no more than 6 cookies on a cookie sheet, leaving space for them to spread - these are big cookies!
- 17
Bake for 14-15 minutes, until the edges are golden and the middles have started to crack a bit.
- 18
The cookies can cool on the pan, to keep them from drying out place them in an airtight container overnight.