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Rainbow Sugar Cookie Arrangement
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Decorative container
Tissue paper
Dough disk, recipe follows
Flower pots of various sizes
Long and short lollipop sticks
Jar of jelly beans in varying shades of green
Flower foam
Flower-shaped cookie cutters
Floral tape
Store-bought icing in various colors
Silk leaves
Recipe card, see below for text
Dough Disk:
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
2/3 cup vegetable shortening
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Dough Disk: In a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), cream the granulated sugar, butter and shortening until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla and baking powder and mix. Add the flour and mix. Shape the dough into a large flat disk, kneading briefly if necessary to bring the dough together. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill 1 to 2 hours.
Line container with tissue paper and place all items inside. The recipe card should read as follows:
Get started on your cookie bouquet garden by preheating the oven to 350 degrees, then butter a sheet pan. After that, roll out the dough to 1/4-inch thick on a lightly floured surface. Using the cookie cutters, cut out cookies and transfer to the prepared pan. Insert a lollipop stick inside each cookie and bake until light golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool completely on the sheet pan.
To ice the cookies, you can either use the icing provided, or if you're feeling a bit adventurous, here's a quick and easy recipe:
4 cups confectioners' sugar
4 to 5 tablespoons whole, 2 percent fat or 1 percent fat, milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 colors food coloring
In a medium bowl, mix the confectioners' sugar, 4 tablespoons of the milk, and the vanilla until smooth. If still too thick to spread, add the remaining tablespoon of milk a little at a time until the icing is smooth and pourable, but thick enough to coat. Measure 1/4 cup of white icing into each of 4 small bowls. Color them 4 different colors. Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.
When you're ready to ice the cookies, set a wire rack over a piece of waxed or parchment paper. Place the cooled cookies on the wire rack and pour the remaining white icing onto them. Using a metal icing spatula, cover the cookies completely with an even layer of icing. Before the icing sets, use forks or squeeze bottles to drizzle the other 4 colors of icing over the cookies to make spidery lines. Let harden 1 hour then store in an airtight container.
To assemble the cookie bouquet, start by cutting out cubes of flower foam that will fit into the flower pots, then wrap the foam in plastic. Place a silk leaf against the stick in one of the iced cookies, then wrap the entire stick with floral tape, so it looks like a flower stem. Stick the cookie "flower" into the foam in the flower pot then cover the foam with jelly beans. ALL DONE!
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Other Recipes from this Episode
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