Kaleidoscope Shortbread Cookies

To me, Easter is all about colours. Colouring eggs, colourful table decoration, and most importantly colourful desserts! You can’t go wrong with these beautiful kaleidoscope shortbread cookies.

These cookies have an amazing “buttery”, melt-in-your-mouth, crumbly texture. These cookies have just the right amount of sweetness that will keep you coming back for more. Better yet they are free from:

• Gluten

• Grains

• Dairy

• Refined sugar

• Soy and legumes

The colouring of these cookies take a bit of time but if you want to impress your guests the steps are with it! If you are short on time, you can always skip the colouring steps and just make simple shortbread cookies for any occasion.

To colour your dough, the options are endless. You can use gel food colouring, liquid food colouring or natural coloured powders like turmeric, beet powder, ground freeze-dried fruit, cocoa powder or matcha. I recommend sticking to 3 colours. I used beet powder, blueberry powder, and matcha powder.

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kaleidoscope shortbread cookies

makes 12 cookies

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INGREDIENTS:

2 ¼ cups almond flour

¼ cup arrowroot powder, plus more for sprinkling

¼ teaspoon salt, plus more for sprinkling on top

¼ cup maple syrup

½ cup palm shortening, lard, or butter at room temperature

Colours of your choice

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine almond flour, arrowroot, and salt. Next, add the maple syrup to the dry mixture and mix on low speed for 30 seconds. Add the palm shortening to the mixing bowl, spacing out the shortening around the flour mixture. Mix until no dry pockets remain. As you mix, make sure you don’t see any areas of unincorporated butter, as these can turn into greasy spots in your cookies. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.

2. Lay a piece of parchment paper on your countertop, with one of the long sides facing you.

3. Roughly cut the dough in half and place it on one side of the parchment paper. Place another parchment paper on top. Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangular shape between the two halves of the parchment sheet. The dough should be about ¼” thick. Set the dough within the parchment paper aside, leaving it at room temperature. If you are choosing to skip colouring the dough, skip to step 13.

4. It's time to colour your dough. Divide the remaining dough into 3 portions. I didn't measure this but if you can weigh the dough out into three equal portions. Colour each portion individually with the instructions below.

5. If using gel colour, place one dough portion in a small bowl. Add a drop of gel food colouring and stir well to blend the colour into the dough. Keep adding colour until you’re satisfied.

6. If using liquid colour, place one dough portion in a small bowl. Add a drop of liquid food colouring and stir well to blend the color into the dough. Add 1 to 2 more drops of colour as needed, but don’t exceed 3 total drops or the dough will become too wet. In my opinion, I would recommend not choosing this option as it will add liquid to the dough.

7. If using coloured powders, place one dough portion in a small bowl. In a small bowl, mix the coloured powder with a drop of water. You are trying to make a gel between the colour and water. For example, I added one teaspoon of matcha with ¼ teaspoon of water and continued to add a drop of water until I make a gel to add to the dough. Add a small amount of your coloured gel to the dough. Work the gel into the dough until it’s completely combined. Add more gel as needed to get your preferred coloured. A note on natural colours: these colours won't be as bright in comparison to using store-bought gels.

8. Peel the parchment paper off the top of the uncolored dough sheet.

9. Take one colour of dough and shape it into a tube that is around the length of the short edge of the plain dough sheet. Place the dough onto the bottom edge of the plain dough sheet.

10. Lifting up the bottom edge of the parchment sheet, begin rolling the plain dough sheet around the coloured dough log. Keep rolling until the coloured log is just barely encased by plain dough, with none of the plain dough overlapping itself. Pinch the seam of the plain dough together to seal it.

11. Repeat the rolling process with all of your other colours.

12. Squeeze the log together gently to seal the dough log together. Using a sharp knife, cut the dough log in half. Take the two halves and stack them on top of each other. Squeeze them together gently.

13. Using the parchment paper, roll this stack of dough into a log shape again. I rolled it out to a length of approximately 14 cm but it all depends on how big you want your cookies. Wrap the dough log in parchment paper. Refrigerate the shaped log for at least 2 hours. The dough can stay in the fridge for 3 days. If you are making the dough ahead of time, wrap the dough in plastic wrap instead of parchment paper and then store it in the fridge.

14. When the cookie dough has set in the fridge preheat your oven to 350C/175F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.

15. To make shortbread, cut the log into approximately 1/4-inch (2/3-centimeter) thick slices. Place the cookies on the lined baking sheets, leaving at least 1/2 inch of space between the cookies. They will spread a little but not much. Bake the cookies for 8 - 10 minutes, or until the tops are matte and pale but the cookies have not yet started to brown. They will still seem soft if you poke them, but they’ll firm up as they cool. Sprinkle with some salt and let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets before serving or storing.

16. Shortbread cookie dough wrapped airtight, keeps for 3 days in the refrigerator or for up to 1 month in the freezer. Let the dough thaw in the refrigerator overnight.