Rainbow Cookies

I was really excited about the rainbow cookies I made for Claire's party. They were actually inspired by the candy corn cookies we made a few weeks ago—a layered sugar cookie sliced to reveal all the colors. The steps are pretty much the same, just more/different colors and a different slicing pattern.

Step 1: Mix up a sugar cookie dough. Here is the original recipe for the candy corn cookies I found on Kathie Cooks. It is lemon flavored and quite a nice texture.

Step 2: Divide dough evenly into separate bowls for each color, and dye to desired shade with food coloring.

Step 3: Press each layer firmly into a baking dish (might wish to line with parchment paper for easy removal) OR roll each layer out with a rolling pin and stack. I used the dish method for the candy corn ones, and found it was hard to make each layer even (see how bumpy my orange layer is in the picture above?) so I rolled each layer for the rainbow cookies. The edges are uneven, then, as you see below, but inside the "loaf," they are much more even.

Step 4: Wrap the layered "loaf" of dough (remove from baking dish, if you've used that method for assembling the layers) and place in fridge for at least two hours to firm. You can keep the dough for up to a week wrapped in the fridge, to make fresh cookies in several batches, like a homemade slice-and-bake roll. I did that with the candy corn ones. 

Step 5: Remove from fridge and slice into bars of about 1/4 inch thick. For the rainbow cookies, I sliced each strip in half to make bars about 3-4 inches long. For the candy corn cookies, angle your knife back and forth to make 6-7 triangles out of the long strip.

Step 6: Bake on lightly greased cookie sheet at 375 for about 10 minutes. Cookies will expand slightly. (I worried that I made the rainbow cookies too flat, resulting in too thin a bar, but the 1-inch wide bar expanded to about 1.25-1.5 inch after baking.)

Step 7: Add the finishing touch. Kathie's recipe calls for dusting the candy corn cookies in sugar (though they are quite tasty without it) and I added a frosting "cloud" to the end of my rainbow cookie bars.

Step 8: Serve and enjoy!

I'm notorious for botching dessert recipes that require even the tiniest amount of skill, but I've managed these layer cookies twice in the last month!

Sharing the wealth of this slightly-easier-than-it-looks recipe, I'm linking up at Kristen Welch's  Works for Me Wednesday and with Clever Chicks blog hop!