The Colorful Carnival Cookies are delicious and nice to look at, especially appealing to kids because of their bright colors. They don’t take long to prepare; you just need to make the shortcrust pastry and add the coloring to make them so cheerful. To create these cookies, you only need a little patience when assembling the strips of pastry, which should alternate in colors to achieve this wonderful checkered effect.
A really fun idea for Carnival, and it can also be made with children. The cookies are perfect for birthdays and parties too.
Here are more ideas for Carnival
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Economical
- Rest time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
- Portions: 6
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Carnival
- Energy 132.46 (Kcal)
- Carbohydrates 17.52 (g) of which sugars 7.51 (g)
- Proteins 2.24 (g)
- Fat 6.36 (g) of which saturated 4.01 (g)of which unsaturated 2.27 (g)
- Fibers 0.31 (g)
- Sodium 30.91 (mg)
Indicative values for a portion of 40 g processed in an automated way starting from the nutritional information available on the CREA* and FoodData Central** databases. It is not food and / or nutritional advice.
* CREATES Food and Nutrition Research Center: https://www.crea.gov.it/alimenti-e-nutrizione https://www.alimentinutrizione.it ** U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2019. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov
Ingredients for Colorful Cookies
- 2 cups cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup cup sugar
- 1/2 cup cup butter
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 egg
- as needed Food coloring (preferably powder or gel)
- 1 egg white
Tools
- 1 Brush
- Cling Film
- Ruler
- Parchment Paper
- 1 Baking Tray
Preparing Colorful Cookies
Recipe for about 30 cookies
To make the process easier, I recommend watching the video above.
In a bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder, add the sugar, salt, egg, and soft butter. Knead until you form a soft and homogeneous dough.
Once ready, divide it into 2 parts and use the colors you prefer to color the two doughs. In the end, you should have 2 differently colored doughs, wrap them in cling film and let them rest in the fridge for 30/40 minutes.
I recommend using powdered or gel food coloring for the best results on the pastry. Additionally, you can dose the color as you prefer, “you can find them here“
After the time has passed, take the dough out of the fridge and roll out the two portions of dough, creating rectangular sheets about 1 cm thick. From each rectangle, cut 10 strips, 1 cm wide and 12 cm long, using a ruler to ensure they are all the same size.
Brush the strips with beaten egg white and join them 3 by 3, alternating the colors. Now roll out a sheet of dough and wrap the colorful strip dough well that you’ve created.
Always help by brushing with the egg white, it will help the sheet adhere well. Then, place it in cling film and seal well, put the block in the fridge for an hour to firm up.
If you want to cut the time in half, just put the block in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Once the dough is well compacted, cut the cookies to a thickness of half an inch “maximum 1 cm”. Arrange them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake them in the oven at 350°F for about 15 minutes.
Enjoy your treat and have a great Carnival!
Storage and Variations of Colorful Cookies
The cookies can be stored in a tin box for up to a week.
Use powdered coloring and alternatively gel ones, they are easier to handle and the result will be really excellent. We can create cookies in many different colors and even make them with classic shortcrust pastry and cocoa for a checkerboard effect.
If you like cookies, check out the hazelnut cookies
