Coloured Sugar Biscuits

Yesterday I was feeling down.  My dear Jess had linked me an interesting idea and I thought I would try.  So, I made two different batches of what I hoped would be rainbow sugar cookies.  The recipe I was linked called for a sugar cookie mix, but I like to make mine from scratch.  Thus I went looking for sugar cookie recipes I could use.  The first mixture I made was too sticky to use for what I want to do but I figured I wouldn't waste the mix.  The second lot was a better consistency but the end result was a disaster.  The biggest problem was a matter of aesthetics.  They tasted fine.  But I blame on the food colouring for the poor finish (and possible too much sugar).  I have to say Morrisons, I am disappointed.  Your yellow and, to an extent, your pink worked quite well but your other colours either ended up looking very unappealing (red) or vanished entirely (green).  Such a shame as I reckon these would have looked lovely if they'd remained a decent colour.  Oh well, something I will definitely be trying again with different colouring.

So this entry is for mixture 1.  

This is the sugar cookie mixture I used for those Peek Freans I tried a couple of weeks ago, except I added more flour to try and get a thicker dough.  It didn't work as well as I hope.  Could still just about roll it into a ball though.

Recipe - Made about 35 - Adapted from Allrecipes.com

• 110g/4oz softened butter
• 190g/6.7oz caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 260g/9oz plain flour
• 3g/0.1oz baking powder
• 1g/pinch of salt
• Food colouring

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4 and line 3 baking trays with greaseproof paper.
2. Cream the butter and the sugar until pale and fluffy.
3. Beat in the egg and the vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder and combine with the sugar mixture.
5. Separate mixture equal portions depending on how many colours you are using (so 3 portions for 3 colours, etc.) and place in individual bowls.
6. Add food colouring to each bowl and combine with the mixture.
7. Roll the mixture into equal sized balls and place onto the trays.  I had 5 colours and got 7 balls from each portion of mixture.  You want your dough to look quite dark in colour because it will lighten up when cooking.
8. Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  They will still be a bit soft when ready to come out.
9. Remove from oven and leave on tray for a couple of minutes, before transferring to a cooling rack.