Go-To Recipe
Sugar cookies are one of my favorite cookies to make, because they are so versatile! You can make them vanilla, almond, lemon. You can eat them plain or add icing. You can roll them in sugar. You can make them different colors!
Coloring the Dough
I wanted to make red, white, and blue cookies for the Forth of July. I decided the best way to get all three colors in with this recipe, was to put all three colors together.
I started by separating my dough into thirds. I put two-thirds into a bowl, and kept 1/3 of the dough in the mixer. I added red gel food coloring, with the mixer on low until I got my desired color. I used Wilton Icing Colors in red. The colors will darken slightly as they chill!
I took out the red dough, wrapped it in plastic wrap and then placed in the fridge.
I added another 1/3 of the dough back into the mixer. Don’t worry about cleaning it between coloring. Whatever red is left over will mix right into the blue coloring. You can do that same things for other colors too! Just make sure to start with your lightest color first. I used navy blue food coloring. After I added in blue food coloring to get my desired effect, I again wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.
For the rest of the dough, I did not add any food coloring. I wrapped it and off to the fridge it went.
Rolling the Dough
After 2 hours, take all three colors from the refrigerator.
Grab small pieces from each color and put them together on a floured surface.
Use your hands to smush the colors together slightly, and them roll.
Roll out to desired thickness and cut with cookie cutters.
I take what rolled out dough is left and put it back into the fridge, while I do the above steps with whatever colored dough is left.
When all I have are the left overs, I will smush it together slightly with my hand and the roller. This will give you more of a marbled look. I try not to work the dough too much, or the colors will mix together too much and start to change into colors that I am not looking for. I will often not use the second round of left over dough and will give it to Graham to play with….and yes I know it has raw eggs and flour, but he always bakes with me and knows not to put his hands in his mouth until he washes them. He actually helped me with these cookies!
I really like the way this looks, and I have actually done this for Easter too!! I separated the dough into more sections and used pastel colors. This is a fun and easy way to change up a basic sugar cookie recipe.
