Grandmothers need an arsenal of cookies that can be popped in the oven at a moment’s notice.  That’s harder to do with a standard drop or bar cookie - but a ROLL is much more versatile.  Slice off just what you need to spoil a few grandkids, and store the rest for later!

I was looking for a good standard cookie recipe that you could add food coloring to that didn’t taste “manufactured.”  That was a tall order, but after much searching, I found this recipe on bigoven.com.  It really needed butter for better flavor, yet that golden color wreaks havoc with food coloring. 

After a few adjustments, this was the result.  Although the plain cookie is great as it is, I thought it was a lot more fun adding a vanilla glaze and sprinkles.  A glaze is much more “summer friendly” than a frosting that melts in the heat. 

Add these to your 4th of July picnic, and watch to see which cookie is taken first...

Ingredients:

1. *1 cup butter
   

2. *1 tsp vanilla
   

3. *1 tsp almond flavoring
   

* 3 cups flour

* 1/2 tsp salt

* 2 cups granulated sugar

* 2 eggs

* 1 tsp baking powder

* red and blue food coloring

Vanilla Glaze:

1. * powdered sugar
   

2. * vanilla to taste
   

3. * water
   

Instructions

Cream together butter and sugar. Add in the eggs and vanilla. beating well. Mix in flour, baking powder and salt.   Divide dough into 3 equal balls. Place one ball into a bowl and add 10 - 20 drops of red coloring, adjusting amount for desired shade.  Mix. Repeat with blue coloring with the second portion of dough. Wrap each section in plastic wrap and refrigerate briefly to make dough easier to roll.

Moisten countertop slightly with water.  Cover with plastic wrap, and place  red or blue dough on top.  Flatten slightly with your hand, then cover with a second sheet of plastic wrap.  Using a rolling pin, roll to a 10” x 15” rectangle.  See photo at right for a suggestion on how to straighten edges.  Fold back top layer of plastic wrap slightly to expose the edge you want to straighten.  Using the bottom layer of wrap to lift the dough, fold it on top of itself along rough outer edges.  This gives the dough a straight outer edge.  Re-cover with top layer of wrap.  Repeat on all sides.  Set aside and repeat with the other two colors of dough. 

When all dough is rolled to similar sizes (they don’t have to be EXACT, unless you are trying to put this on a BLOG!?!)  Remove top layer of plastic from the red dough and set it on your countertop.  Remove the top layer of plastic from the uncolored dough, and “flip” it (upside down) on top of the blue layer, being careful to align edges.  (If it’s not perfect, don’t despair - it will just make your cookies more “interesting”...)  Repeat with the blue layer of dough. 

Using the bottom layer of wrap, lift the three layers and allow them to roll up as you continue to lift.  Secure wrap around roll and refrigerate on a baking sheet till firm - about 2 hours.

When you are ready to bake, slice into 1/4” slices, allowing 2” of room around each cookie for spreading.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-11 minutes (depending on size of cookies)  Makes about 4 dozen. 

If desired, glaze warm cookies with a pastry brush dipped in glaze mixture immediately after taking them out of the oven and placing them on wire racks.  Since the cookies are warm, the glaze will harden quickly - so if you are adding sprinkles, don’t delay!

Another idea for shaping the dough is to make them into a “pinwheel” formation as follows:

Roll the balls of dough separately into ropes about 15” long.  Place them together and spiral slightly until it looks like a red, white and blue sausage about 15 inches long. Wrap dough in plastic wrap. Refrigerate overnight.   Bake as directed above.