Despite
loving celebrating the random, Monday rolled around and I hadn't put out leprechaun coins or planned anything festive. My eldest started asking right away if there were any leprechaun clues, so as they ate breakfast I had to steal away upstairs and put out some tricks. She kept me hopping, because after seeing the footprints and green water I had put in the bathroom sink (he went for a swim), she wanted to know where the trail of coins were. Ack! Downstairs I ran as they looked upstairs, found a rainbow drawing from my son, and put some coins out on the floor (thank you Girl Guides for having given my daughter coins a few days before). St Patty's Day rescued!
When the littlest went down for a nap, I figured the middle and I should do our monthly cookie baking - but what to do? Googling leprechaun cookies turned up a whole bunch of shamrocks using cookie cutters, so I turned to rainbows, and
found these. I was daunted by the amount of work, but I was also doing an incredible amount of laundry, so these seemed like something I could do in between loads and folding. (Note: these are not for those unsure about food coloring. I figure you could do some of them naturally, but not all?).
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 cups sugar
2 whole eggs
2 whole eggs yolks
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons almond extract
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
Directions:
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar and beat well, for about 2 minutes. Add the whole eggs and 2 yolks, continuing to mix until combined. Stir in the vanilla extract and vanilla.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder and whisk until sifted. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture about 1 cup at a time, stirring with the paddle attachment (not the whisk) to incorporate each cup. Do not over mix.
Divide the dough into six equal portions - it helps if you have a kitchen scale for this. Using gel food coloring (gel works so much better for vibrant colors than standard food coloring), color each layer a color of the rainbow. I used a hand mixer to combine the color in with each dough section and then rinsed the bowl and beaters before moving on to another color.
Place dough in individual ziplock bags or saran wrap and refrigerate until firm, about an hour or two. One at a time, roll colors into approximately 6x9 inch rectangles. Refrigerate each layer after rolling, and then add subsequent layers on top in rainbow color order.
When all layers have been stacked, trim edges for a neat rectangle. Wrap again in saran wrap and freeze until very firm. Slice strips across the 6 inch side about 1/4 inch thick and cut each strip in half. Place cookies on a parchment lined cookie sheet and freeze again (this helps minimize spreading).
When you are ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet for 6-10 minutes. Cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Cool the cookie sheet in between baking each batch.
Leftover dough can be stored in the freezer for a few weeks.
Not wanting to waste any dough, we turned the scraps into cookies as well. These were a great quick eat for the littles who didn't want to wait for the 3 hours it took to have the rainbow slices ready!
Some tricks I learned along the way:
It was easiest to roll the layers out on parchment paper, then flip it upside down onto the previous layer, and peel off the parchment. A little bit of flour helped with the rolling as well.
The kids LOVED these. They were worth the work. The toddler quickly exclaimed "more ookie!" after she gobbled down the first one. The big two both took them to school on the 18th to share with their friends, and the eldest asked me to make more the following day - ha!
These will probably make it back onto our list for a birthday, or for St. Patty's again next year.
Enjoy!
