Colorful Cookie Pops

Welcome to another installment of birthday baking!  Aren't these adorable?  My lovely niece turned 9 last month so I wanted to treat her to something special.  These were the perfect fit.  A simple, yet tasty, soft sugar cookie dressed up to party.  What says birthday more than colorful cookie lollipops?

For those of you intimidated by the Stained Glass Flower Lollipops but still want a fun cookie on a stick, these are for you.  Poking around the Betty Crocker website for kid's cookies, these called out to me, despite being more designed for Christmas.  I put my own spin on these treats, using blue, red and purple food coloring as well as jumbo nonpareils and tied them up with a cute ribbon.  Not realizing I didn't have any treat bags left, I wrapped these in plastic wrap before securing with regular curling ribbon.  Experiment with favorite colors and sprinkles--I had a hard time choosing the jumbo nonpareils since there were so many other cute shapes--stars, butterflies, dinosaurs, etc.  These come together quickly (just a bowl and a spoonula), although if you want intense colors, you need to work the dough.  Dave thought it looked like Play-doh, but they taste a lot better!



Colorful Cookie Pops

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg (not two like I have pictured)
2 2/3 cups flour
assorted food coloring
sprinkles or colored sugar
popsicle sticks

In a large bowl, mix sugar, butter, vanilla and egg using a spoon, spatula or spoonula.  Note: Make sure your butter is very soft (but not melted).  My butter had the consistency of frosting--it was soft enough I could have spread it on frozen bread.

Stir in flour.  Eventually you'll probably want to work the dough with your hands to make sure it's all incorporated.

This is the point where I stopped stirring and started using my hands.

Post-hand kneading

Divide dough evenly so you have a dough ball to correspond with each color you want to use.  I used three colors, so I made three dough balls.


On a flexible cutting mat, flatten the first dough ball and drop on about 6 drops of food coloring to start.  Knead the dough until the color is mixed throughout, adding more food coloring as necessary to achieve the intensity you want. Note: The mat will prevent your work surface from being "decorated" by the food coloring.

Repeat with remaining colors.

Using a bit of dough from as many colors as you like (I used two at a time), shape dough into 1 1/2 inch balls.

Insert a popsicle stick into the side of each ball.  Place on a parchment or silicone lined baking sheet, about 2 inches apart.

Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass, dipping glass in sugar to prevent sticking.  Press to between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.  Press sprinkles or colored sugar into each cookie as desired.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 9-11 minutes or until slightly firm.  Note: Be careful to not let the edges brown or they'll ruin the pretty color!

Remove from oven and cool on pan for 1 minute before removing to complete cooling on wire rack.  If desired, when cool, place in individual treat bags or wrap in plastic wrap and secure with ribbon.

I ran out of popsicle sticks, so I made the remaining dough into regular cookies.  Still adorable!

Makes about 18 cookies.

Happy Baking,
The Cookie Princess

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