Technicolor Cookies | Sam Seneviratne | NYT Cooking

M they're good I'm so relieved they're [Laughter] [Music] Good hi I'm Samantha Sona it's cookie Week and I'm here in the New York Times Cooking Studio to show you how to make My Technicolor cookies so these are Short fried cookies flavored with Cinnamon and ginger covered in a Beautiful royal icing glaze or you could Even just drizzle some chocolate on it And call it a day you can switch them Out with spices that you like more They're very Versatile so we're going to start by Making our cookie so I have my flour I'm Putting in ground cinnamon ground Ginger I'm using freshly ground cardamom I like it a little better so I actually Just crush the cardamom in a mortar and Pestle and use that you can absolutely Use prr cardamom if you prefer this is Just my reference and a little bit of Salt and some baking Powder this cookie really easy and you Can make them way in advance you can Make the dough and freeze it well Wrapped for months you could even make The cookies unglazed and freeze those so You can really break up the process and Make it very simple and now in our mixer I have my room temperature Butter sugar And when you mix the orange dust in with

The butter and sugar it just has a Better chance of breaking apart and Really flavoring the Cookie that's probably like 1 and 1/2 Tablespoon so I probably need another Orange such a good smell that's probably Too this is kind of a dense cookie so I'm not really really trying to irate it That much I'm just trying to mix Everything together and get it to be Creamy that's enough for me room Temperature obviously so that the butter Doesn't stiffen up Again put a little vanilla all my Favorite things I really wanted to build A cookie that had a lot of things going On in it so that it could stand up to All that royal Icing okay flour mixture [Laughter] A little Messy okay so I like to roll the dough Out now while it's still warm it makes Rolling it super duper easy and then you Can chill it in a flat sheet then you Can cut your cold cookies out later so I Like to use two pieces of parchment Paper to roll it out you don't need any Additional flour if you do it between Parchment paper which is nice because Adding extra flour to your cookie dough Tends to dry them out or pastry anything If you add too much flour when you're Rolling something you're just going to

Make it a little bit drier in the end Now we have our cookie dough and we're Going to roll it out into an even qu Inch Thickness start by sort of smooshing it Down a little to make your job a little Easier and then just [Applause] Roll that I might even Just rip this off put it here I'm just Trying to build a nice even Rectangle it's fun it's like Play-Doh That doesn't smell bad I always choose Rolling pins that are just straight and Ones that don't have the handles either Because I think it's nice to be holding This Part so Satisfying And I never roll or I try never to roll My pin completely off the dough because That that tends to make your edges a Little thinner so if you sort of roll up Until the edge and then rotate It you have less skinny [Music] Ends this is my personal favorite ruler From home see where we're at ever so Slightly under but I think a little Thinner is is okay cool so now I'm GNA Pop it into the fridge to chill or you Could freeze it either way just make Sure it's cold cold cold cold cold oh You're following

[Music] Me where am I Going so now we are going to make the Royal icing glaze that you're going to Pour on top of all your cookies and all You need for that is confectioner sugar A ton of confectioner sugar I'm using Mering powder you could use fresh egg Whites if you wanted to I just find Mering powder easy the amount is Consistent you don't have to worry about Using your yolks later on um and you can Keep this all the Time it's a Lot six but we are making four dozen Cookies so it's worth It O M I inhaled a lot of Sugar I think it's important also when You're mixing royal icing to try not to Whip it but really I'm just trying to Combine it not aate it because bubbles Are not your friend so I'll just mix That all together for a sec and then I'm Going to start with about half a cup of Water a little bit at a time just so I Can get the consistency just Right If you make it a little bit too loose You can always add a little bit more Confectioner sugar and if it's too thick You can add a little bit of water I Think it's better to just start slow so What we're looking for is a consistency

That is Pourable and it should sort of when you Lift up your whisk and pour it in it Should fall back into itself in about 10 Seconds but also consider you're going To mix it once you add the colors in and Add additional water here and there You're going to continue to mix it so Maybe it's like 7 minutes total mixing Looks beautiful but it's very stiff so When I do This it's not going to fall back into Itself in 10 seconds we got to add more Water and just do it by Hand all right let's do the test Again Yeah that feels right so pretty isn't it Like delicious glue all right so now we Have this and I think you should color It before you let it rest so that all Your orli licing is all rested at the Same time and all has the exact same Consistency so what I'm going to do is Divide it into little Bowls it's the fun and very messy part Get the out It That was close my friend calls me a Clumsy Ninja cuz I drop a lot of stuff But I often catch [Music] It now we're going to color all of these And I'm using gel food coloring because It doesn't add as much water it's not

Going to change the consistency as much It's also going to give you a more Vibrant color and you definitely want to Make sure that your coloring is not oil Based because if it's oilbased your Royal icing will never set but it's not Scary at all it's really Fun not stressful don't [Music] Worry and I wouldn't pause at this point You kind of want to get this all done Cover these and set them aside because They will dry out it'll fully dry after Like 6 hours but it'll start to get a Little bit crusty and a little bit Thick so everything in this cookie all Customizable you can change all the Colors you can do whatever you like and Make them your favorite cookie the most Important thing to do and I know it Feels like you don't have to I thought I Didn't have to when I first started Working with royal icing but it's Resting the royal icing you have to rest It so that the bubbles that are in the Icing sort of float to the top and you Can knock them out before you put it on Your cookies otherwise those bubbles are Are going to come up you're going to Decorate your cookies and they're going To look amazing and then 30 minutes Later they're going to Bubble Up On Top Of the cookies and you don't want that So as it rest the colors will get a

Little bit more intense which is a nice Thing I'm going to cover all of these And let them sit for about 30 minutes Just so all those bubbles can go away And then we can decorate our cookies so I have my chilled sheet of cookie dough Look at that you want your dough to stay Nice and cold so that it keeps its shape Essentially I mean it's going to taste Fine no matter what but you won't get Nice beautiful little rectangles if it's Not really Cold so we're doing 1 in by 2 and 1/2 in Rectangles it's a lot of butter in this Dough so it's going to start to get soft Pretty quickly if at any point you feel Like it's just bending out of shape and Feeling too soft you can pop it right Back into the fridge keep it on the [Music] Sheet very easy to [Music] Achieve this is not hard [Music] Okay my cookies are cool and I'm going To set them up pretty close together so That I can pour my glaze on top put the Back in Here so then we just need one extra bowl To create our mixed Glaze they go on top of one another They're going to kind of swirl as we Pour pour them so this technique is Essentially we stole it from Mirror

Glaze so mirror glaze is usually made up Of white chocolate and gelatin and Sometimes condensed milk and it's this Really thin runny glaze that people pour Over cakes and it sort of runs off and Makes this beautiful pattern so we sort Of stole that technique I'm going to go Side to [Music] Side it does put a pretty thick layer of Glaze on your Cookies But it's quite Pretty you can also go back and fill in The holes if you want them completely Enrobed you can do [Music] That it looks really pretty when it Starts to combine a little bit but the Stripes are nice Too so Fun you can go back in and fill connect The holes Pairing knife to sort of connect and Swirl the bits that are Naked [Music] F so now these just have to dry Completely and that usually takes about 4 to 6 hours and then they're ready to Eat so here my cookies already set and Beautiful don't they look so cute now I Have a cup of tea too cuz it's a perfect Combination

M m they're so good together I'm tasting A lot of orange which I really like and It's nice because it really stands up to All that royal icing then you get a hint Of all those wonderful warm spices it's Like a really nice holiday cookie it Feels very December you could store them in an air Tank container at room temperature for Probably 2 weeks they're a good shipping Cookie you can find my recipe and all The other beautiful recipes from cookie Week at New York Times cooking let's Open this package let's see what it is We got some cookies a thank you holy Moly I'm going to eat One M good One