Rainbow Cookies
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
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85 g/3ozs butter, softened
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140g/5ozs white caster superfine sugar
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1 egg, at room temperature
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1 teaspoon vanilla
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180g/6ozs all-purpose flour
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1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
For Royal Icing and decoration
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1 egg white (30grams/1 oz)
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1-2 teaspoons lemon juice
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150grams sifted icing sugar
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Food colouring gels or liquids in various colours
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small white marshmallows for clouds
DIRECTIONS
Step 1 - Make cookies. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour and cinnamon. Cover, and chill dough for at least one hour (or overnight).
Step 2 - Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Roll out dough on floured surface 1/2 an inch thick. Cut into round shapes with the large round cookie cutter and then cut out a small circle in the centre. Using a sharp knife, cut these in half as shown. Place cookies 1 inch apart on parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely.
Step 3 - Make royal icing by beating egg white with lemon juice until foamy on low speed increasing to medium speed. You want two textures for the royal icing, a stiff one to pipe the outline and a runnier one to "flood" the outline. Add sifted icing sugar by the spoonful while beating until desired consistency is reached. You want it a little stiff in order to pipe the outline however, if it is too stiff, add a tiny little bit of warm water.
Step 4 - Divide into bowls as you will now mix colours into these. Rainbows have seven colours to them and it's up to you whether you want to do all of the colours (the more you do the fiddlier and more time consuming they will be). Stir the colours in well making sure that there are no streaks. Always cover your royal icing with cling wrap as it dries out easily. Some strong colours need some time to settle or they will be a bit blotchy so make your royal icing ahead of time if you can.
5. Spoon some of the royal icing into a piping bag or a strong ziplock bag and pipe a a border for each colour (as shown). Allow to set a little for 20-30 minutes. Add a little water (not too much) to each of the remaining bowls of icing to make the flood icing and using a small spoon, fill in the edges making sure to prick any air bubbles and fill in any holes.
Step 6 - Place white marshmallows to the side to simulate clouds.