gel food coloringin red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo (purple).
Instructions
In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.
In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir until a soft dough forms.
Separate the dough into two batches. One batch I separated into 4 pieces and the other batch into 6 pieces. The batch of 6 I used paste gel food coloring to tint each section a color of the rainbow. In case you don't remember, those colors are: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and indigo (purple).
For the other 4 pieces I tinted two of them green, one darker than the other, and the other two yellow, again, one darker than the other. In hindsight, the yellows didn't end up looking any different, so if you want there to be some contrast, add a bit of orange to one of the yellow batches. The green dough is for the shamrocks and the yellow is for the gold coins.
Chill the dough wrapped in plastic wrap in the refrigerator for two hours.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F when you start shaping the cookies.
Gold Coin Cookies
The gold coins are the easiest. Take your two different yellows, roll a 3/4" ball of each one, then gently roll the two balls together. Don't go crazy, just roll them enough to combine the two. Using the palms of both hands, roll into a snake, about 10-12" long. Start at one end and roll the snake into a spiral cookie.
Shamrock Cookies
To make the shamrock cookies you'll need three green discs.
Take your two different shades of green and roll a 3/4" ball of each one, then gently roll the two balls together. Again, don't go crazy, just roll them enough to combine the two. Using the palms of both hands, roll into a snake, about 10-12" long.
Next, where the coil ends, pinch the disc into a point.
Use a butter knife or a lollipop stick to create a dent at the opposite end, forming a heart shape.
Place the 3 green hearts together and insert a lollipop stick.
Rainbow Cookies
For the rainbows, simply roll colored dough into snakes. The smallest being purple and the largest red, just curve them around each other and insert a stick.
Rainbow Coil Cookies
To make the rainbow twisted coiled cookies, you will need a 1/2" ball of each rainbow colored dough.
Gently combine them into one ball. From here, you can simply roll into a snake then a coil and be done.TIP - If the dough snake breaks a couple times, don't worry! Just pinch it back together it will bake up just fine.
Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.
Notes
This recipe can make anywhere from 20-30 cookies, depending on what shapes you decide to make. The nutrition facts listed are estimates, as each cookie will vary in size.
It's best to use paste gel food coloring for the most vibrant cookies. Plus, you won't need to use as much as you would with liquid food coloring. A little goes a long way, so start small and build your way up.
You can split the dough into sections as we did to make multiple different kinds of cookies or use it all to create your favorite shape - shamrocks, rainbows, gold coins, or twisted coil cookies.