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Slice ‘n Bake Rainbow Sugar Cookies are made from a soft vanilla sugar cookie dough, rolled in layers, then sliced and baked. The cookies are finished off with vanilla butter cream clouds.
Slice ‘n Bake Rainbow Sugar Cookies will make all little leprechauns click their heels and do a jig.. all little leprechauns and me. I will definitely do a jig over rainbow sugar cookies! Especially when there are gold sprinkles floating in those fluffy butter cream clouds.
Making the rainbow is actually much more simple than you would think!
First, I made the sugar cookie dough. I then split the dough into 8 equal pieces. Now it was time to color the dough!
My kids loved helping with this part, they loved to count the drops as they went in. I used my stand mixer to mix in the food coloring so it wasn’t messy at all. If you plan on mixing in the food coloring by hand, make sure to wear gloves. 🙂
Once you’ve made and colored the dough, you will roll the middle ‘plain’ dough into a 12 inch snake. Then you will take the purple dough, using a rolling pin, roll it out into a rectangle. You will then wrap the snake in the purple dough. Repeat with the remaining colors.
The dough should be the same consistency as playdoh. VERY soft and easy to roll out. It shouldn’t crumble at all. If it is crumbly, just add about a 1/2 tsp of water and toss it in your stand mixer for 30 seconds.
One last tip, brush some water onto each colored layer before rolling it onto the snake, this really helps keep everything together. The snake is then sliced to make each individual cookie!
The cookies are baked for 8 minutes at 350°. After the cookies have cooled, it is time for the clouds. The clouds are made out of vanilla buttercream, so butter, powdered sugar, vanilla (I use clear vanilla to keep my white frosting extra white!) and milk.
I just toss everything into my stand mixer and let it go for about 5 minutes until the butter cream is light and fluffy. Then I used a pastry bag with a small star tip to pipe on the cute little clouds. They are seriously magical.
Slice ‘n Bake Rainbow Sugar Cookies
Slice ‘n Bake Rainbow Sugar Cookies are made from a soft vanilla sugar cookie dough, rolled in layers, then sliced and baked. The cookies are finished off with vanilla butter cream clouds.
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/2-3 cups all-purpose flour
- food coloring
Buttercream
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp clear vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer for 3 minutes.
- Scrape down sides and add in the vanilla and egg. Mix well.
- Add in the baking powder and 2 1/2 cups of flour and then slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup stopping once the dough becomes ‘playdoh’ consistency.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal sections. This is easily done by first splitting the dough in half. Continue splitting each section into half until you have 8 sections.
- Using food coloring, color 6 of the sections. The other two will be left plain. Return one section at a time to the stand mixer and mix in the food coloring. You will want to end up with a ball of dough for each of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
- To assemble the dough, first make a 12 inch long snake with one of the plain dough sections.
- Next, roll the purple dough out on a floured surface into a rectangle that is as long as the snake. Put the snake down in the middle of the purple rectangle. Brush a little water onto the purple rectangle, as well as onto the snake. Then tightly roll the purple rectangle onto the snake.
- Repeat with the remaining colors in this order: blue, green, yellow, orange, red. The final layer will be the last plain section. Sometimes the dough won’t make it all the way around the snake, that is okay because the clouds will cover the bottom half of the cookie anyway. Just make sure that all of the rough ends are on the same side.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1/4 inch sections. Lay them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. These won’t spread or flatten much. I usually load up the cookie sheet pretty tightly.
- Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. You’ll want to pull them when they are puffy and no longer look glossy. If the cookies start turning brown at all, they will be crunchy instead of soft.
- While the cookies are cooling, make the butter cream by combining all butter cream ingredients using a stand mixer. Turn the mixer on and just let it go for about 5 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
- Use a piping bag and pipe fluffy clouds onto the bottom half of the cookie. Sprinkle with gold sprinkles!
Check out my other Slice ‘n Bake Sugar Cookies!
Easter Slice ‘n Bake Sugar Cookies
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Slice 'n Bake Rainbow Sugar Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 3 tsp vanilla
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 2 1/2-3 cups all-purpose flour
- food coloring
Butter Cream
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar
- 1 1/2 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp clear vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Cream the butter and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer for 3 minutes.
- Scrape down sides and add in the vanilla and egg. Mix well.
- Add in the baking powder and 2 1/2 cups of flour and then slowly add the remaining 1/2 cup stopping once the dough becomes 'playdoh' consistency.
- Divide the dough into 8 equal sections. This is easily done by first splitting the dough in half. Continue splitting each section into half until you have 8 sections.
- Using food coloring, color 6 of the sections. The other two will be left plain. Return one section at a time to the stand mixer and mix in the food coloring. You will want to end up with a ball of dough for each of the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple.
- To assemble the dough, first make a 12 inch long snake with one of the plain dough sections.
- Next, roll the purple dough out on a floured surface into a rectangle that is as long as the snake. Put the snake down in the middle of the purple rectangle. Brush a little water onto the purple rectangle, as well as onto the snake. Then tightly roll the purple rectangle onto the snake.
- Repeat with the remaining colors in this order: blue, green, yellow, orange, red. The final layer will be the last plain section. Sometimes the dough won't make it all the way around the snake, that is okay because the clouds will cover the bottom half of the cookie anyway. Just make sure that all of the rough ends are on the same side.
- Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1/4 inch sections. Lay them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet. These won't spread or flatten much. I usually load up the cookie sheet pretty tightly.
- Bake at 350° for 8 minutes. You'll want to pull them when they are puffy and no longer look glossy. If the cookies start turning brown at all, they will be crunchy instead of soft.
- While the cookies are cooling, make the butter cream by combining all butter cream ingredients using a stand mixer. Turn the mixer on and just let it go for about 5 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
- Use a piping bag and pipe fluffy clouds onto the bottom half of the cookie. Sprinkle with gold sprinkles!
You forgot how many eggs
1 egg!