Sparkling Candy Corn Cookies

I found this cookie recipe in a magazine called Land O' Lakes Harvest Baking. They are very fun to make and I loved how they turned out. The cookies are a basic sugar cookie dough that is divided and colored to look like candy corn. The original recipe calls for orange juice and orange peel, but I left that out because I am not a big fan of citrus. These can be stored in the freezer for up to one month.

Sparkling Candy Corn Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp soda
orange food color (I like Wilton paste food color)
yellow food color
sugar to coat

Line bottom and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf pan with waxed paper, plastic wrap, or parchment paper. Set aside.

Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl; beat at medium speed until creamy. Add egg and salt. Continue beating until well mixed. Reduce speed to low; add flour and soda. Beat until well mixed.

Divide dough into thirds. Press one-third of white dough evenly onto bottom of prepared pan. Place another one-third of dough back into the same bowl. Add a small amount of orange food color and mix until the color is well blended. This will appear streaky at first. Just keep kneading it together and it will all eventually blend. Press orange dough evenly over the white dough in the pan. Repeat the same process with the yellow food color on the remaining dough. Press it onto the orange layer. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm (at least 2 hours or overnight).

Place 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl and set aside. (This will be to coat the warm cookies).

Heat oven to 375. Invert pan and remove dough. Peel off parchment paper. Place layered dough onto a cutting board. Cut loaf crosswise into 1/4 inch sliced using a sharp knife, trimming edges to make it even, if necessary. Cut each slice into 6 wedges. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake about 8 minutes, or until the edges are firm and the bottoms are very lightly browned. Cool 1 minute, then roll each cookie in sugar to coat. Place cookies on a cooling rack.

This makes about 15 dozen tiny cookies.

The cookie dough will be crumbly after it is mixed, but will be very easy to handle and will form a smooth ball when squeezed together.

Line a loaf pan with parchment:

Divide the dough into 3 balls:


Press the white layer into the loaf pan first:

Add food coloring to the other 2 balls of dough until you reach intense shades of yellow and orange:I rolled the colored dough out to the approximate size of the loaf pan so that it would be easier to press it in:

Add the orange layer:

Then the yellow layer:

After it is refrigerated, turn it out on a cutting board. It will look like this:

Slice into 1/4" slices:

Then cut each slice into 6 wedges:

Bake, cool 1 minute, then roll in sugar. Place on a rack to finish cooling:

I bagged them in clear gift bags and tied with matching ribbon to give to friends.