Rainbow Sprinkled Alphabet Shortbread Cookies

On the last Thursday of every month, Avyan’s preschool arranges a joint monthly birthday celebration with pizza and cookies. It’s a pretty clever idea. It prevents the kids from going sugar high throughout the month. Since last month was my Piscean, Lego lover boy’s month, I wanted to send some treats for the party. These Rainbow Sprinkled Alphabet Shortbread Cookies felt absolutely perfect for the occasion. The teachers loved the idea and the kids left no crumbs in the box.

As much as I love baking bread or cake, I am just so much intimated with the idea of baking cookies. I have had several flops so far where the entire batch had to be discarded right after the first bite. Shortbread cookies always felt a little less challenging but the amount of butter that goes in panics me! So, I avoided it till now. But now, I have a toddler who happens to love shortbread cookies which means I could bake them more often. Maybe, I’ll bake along with him next time with a different flavor.

Avyan loves to help me in the kitchen, so am pretty sure he would enjoy the entire process. Just as much as he loves playing Lego with his Papa! Sunday is all about Lego building. If you follow me on Instagram chances are you saw those stories I keep sharing. I have zero patience with Lego. I will stick to baking cookies for him.

The key to these flaky cookies is to make sure the butter is cold. I even keep the flour in the refrigerator and use ice-cold water. As I roll and shape the cookies, if the dough starts to feel too soft, I put it back in the refrigerator to cool it down a little bit. Even after shaping the cookies, I place the baking tray in the refrigerator as the oven starts preheating. By doing so, you can maintain the shapes of the cookies.

These are really super easy to bake. If I could do it, anybody can!

Rainbow Sprinkled Alphabet Shortbread Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 14 minutes

Total Time: 29 minutes

Print

Ingredients

• 1¼ cup all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
• ½ cup butter, cut into tiny bites (1 stick)
• ¼ cup ice cold water
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 3 tablespoons rainbow sprinkles
• pinch of salt

Instructions

1. Mix flour, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Drop the tiny pieces of butter and using a pastry cutter or a fork or your hand, press down the butter pieces and mix it with the flour. The butter pieces should be well mixed with the flour and resemble coarse crumbs.
2. Mix the rainbow sprinkles into it and pour water and milk. Using a rubber spatula, mix it to form a dough. Then, using you hand, knead for a while to make smooth dough out of it.
3. Cover the dough with a clear wrap and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.
4. While rolling the dough, place a parchment paper below the dough and one above. This will avoid the dough from sticking to the rolling pins. Roll it to ¼ inch thick and using the alphabet cookie cutter, cut out as many alphabets as you can.
5. Line the cookies on a baking sheet and put the baking sheet in the refrigerator for about 10 minutes.
6. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F.
7. Bake the cookies for about 12 to 14 minutes or until the edges are mild golden in shade. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool off completely. If you don’t have a wire rack, just take it off from the hot baking pan to a plate.