Rainbow Butter Cookies

Directions

Put the butter, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla and almond extract in a large bowl and cream together until smooth – just a couple minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing each time until just combined.  Then add the egg yolk and do the same.

Next, add in the baking powder and salt and mix at low for about a minute, to get them well distributed.

Slowly add in the flour and mix until just distributed.

Now comes the hard part.  Well, not “hard” really, but it’s messy and a little time consuming.

Separate the dough into 6 equal portions.  I used a kitchen scale to make them even, but you can just eyeball it if you prefer.

Now you’re going to add coloring to each of the portions.  I used 6 separate bowls because I have them – if you don’t you can just do one, clean the bowl, move on to the second, etc. until all 6 are done.

Here are the colors you want:

• Purple
• Blue
• Green
• Yellow
• Orange
• Red

If you have gel food coloring, your colors will be more vibrant, but regular food coloring will work, too.

After you’ve colored each portion, refrigerate.  You’re going to want all 6 to have been refrigerated for at least an hour each, so the dough is firm and easy to roll out.

When you’re ready, roll out the purple dough to as close as you can approximate to a 6” x 10” rectangle. 

So you don’t stain your counter and to make them easier to stack, roll out each portion on a sheet of wax or parchment paper.

When you’re done with purple, move on to blue.  Once again roll out the dough on a sheet of paper to a 6” x 10” rectangle.  Carefully place this blue rectangle directly on top of your purple one, with no paper in between the two.

Do this again for the next 4 colors, in the order they’re listed above.  When you’re done, you’ll have a stack of 6 rectangles stacked on top of one another, all sitting on a sheet of wax paper.

Move the stack to the fridge for another hour, so the dough is really firm.  You can also put it in the freezer for 20 minutes or so instead.

When you’re ready to bake, heat the oven to 350 and trim the edges of your stack so you’ve got a true rectangle.

Cut the dough along the long edge, making 6 long strips.  Then cut each strip into 5 individual cookies.

Line your baking sheets with parchment paper and place the cookies on them, on their sides then get your sprinkling sugar and sprinkle over each cookie.

Any cookies that aren’t being baked should go back in the freezer while the others bake.

Bake (at 350) for about 6-8 minutes or until the bottoms are just lightly brown on the edges. 

Take the sheets out of the oven, let the cookies rest on the sheets for 3-4 minutes then move them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes about 30 cookies (but that number will depend entirely on how you cut them – maybe next time I might cut them a little thinner, but these did turn out well!).

Enjoy, and Happy Pride!