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Rainbow Flower Cookies

Soft and sweet rainbow flower cookies with a tart lemon glaze.
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Servings 24 cookies

Ingredients
  

Dough Ingredients

  • 1 cup unsalted butter softened
  • 1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond extract
  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • gel food coloring red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple

Glaze Ingredients

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

Instructions
 

  • In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and powdered sugar on high until a frosting texture forms. Add the egg, vanilla, and almond extract and beat on high until combined. Pinch off 1/3 of the dough and set aside. Divide the remaining dough into 5 equal pieces and set aside.
  • To color the dough, add a few drops of gel food coloring to each piece of dough (the largest reserved dough will be red), and knead it into the dough with a silicone spatula until the color is worked in enough to handle with your hands. You can alternatively use gloves. Knead the color into each piece of dough until you have 6 separate colored pieces. Wrap each piece in plastic wrap and refrigerate for one hour.
  • While the dough is chilling, prepare two aluminum baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
  • Preheat the oven to 375°F.
  • To shape the flowers, pinch off a 1/2″ sized chunk of red dough and roll it between your hands to form a ball. Repeat and arrange 9 per baking sheet. For the petals, pinch off 1/4″ sized chunks of each color dough and roll into smaller balls. You will have to repeat some colors to fill the outside circumference. Place around the outside of the center red ball and gently press each piece of the flower down with the tip of your finger to fuse the flower together and lightly flatten it into shape. Tip: You want the petals to touch together for structural integrity.
  • Bake each tray for 8 minutes and let cool completely at room temperature before glazing.
  • Mix the glaze ingredients together in a small bowl until a smooth glaze forms. Dip the cookies one at a time upside down in the glaze to coat the tops and let them drip on a drying rack over parchment paper. If the cookies are too fragile prior to glazing, you can brush the glaze over the tops. The glaze will add more hardening structure.
  • Let the cookies dry at room temperature until the glaze hardens.