little miss sweetie: Rainbow Cookies

This is one happy cookie...almost too pretty to eat! A little bit time-consuming, I must admit, but absolutely worth the effort! I stumbled upon this idea from Eugenie's Kitchen, this inspiring, creative blog which I've been following for a while.

Eugenie also does an awesome tutorial on YouTube, click here.

Here's what you'll need to bake your own rainbow cookies (besides time...):

170 g unsalted butter, softened

155g powdered sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

3 egg yolks

310 g cake flour

Food colors

Sprinkles

Egg wash: 1 egg white & 1 teaspoon water

To start, cream the butter. Place the softened butter (I put my butter out at room temperature for 2 hours) in a large mixing bowl. With a wooden spoon, press the butter against the side of the bowl and beat until creamy, almost like the consistency of mayonnaise.

Next, stir in powdered sugar, vanilla, salt and egg yolks. Mix well.

Fold in flour until combined. With your hands, gather into a smooth dough and form a round disk. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into three equal parts. Set aside one third, then divide the rest into six equal pieces.

Knead a small amount of food coloring into each small piece of dough. I used red, rose, orange, kelly green, teal, and violet from Wilton gel colorings. Wrap each color dough separately in plastic film, then chill for half hour in the fridge.

Roll each color to a rectangular shape, about 0.5 cm in thickness. Stack the rainbow colors, brushing the egg wash in between each layer to "glue" the colors. Cut out the uneven edges on each side. Wrap and chill in fridge for another half hour.

Cut the rainbow dough into small strips no wider than the width of your cookie cutter. For example, my cutter was 3 cm thick, so I cut my dough into 2.5 cm strips. Cut out as many heart shapes as you can on the cross section of the rainbow dough. Be careful to include all 6 colors in your shape!

Brush a small amount of egg wash on the tops of each heart, then "glue" the shapes together to make a rainbow heart log. Wrap in plastic and chill for half hour in the fridge.

Roll out uncolored dough into about 1cm thickness. Cut small long strips to cover the rainbow heart dough. After the heart is entirely covered with uncolored dough, gently roll the dough until the edges and gaps are smooth and even. (This part takes a little patience!) Wrap and chill dough for another half hour in the fridge.

Meanwhile, preheat oven to 170 C and prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the sprinkles on a large plate. Lightly brush the egg wash over the entire length of the dough log, then roll the log gently on the plate of sprinkles.