Rainbows

Fun to make! To make sure I got even portions of dough, I weighed the whole batch and then divided it into 10 parts. When it was time to roll the dough out, I cut pices of paper for patterns. I put the paper under wax paper and then rolled the dough to cover the paper. I put the log of dough in the freezer to hasten chilling. Then I cut them into slices and then cut the slices in half. I thought this was easier than trying to cut the log in half before slicing. These were much easier to make than I had imagined.

I made this recipe for St. Patrick's Day using 7 colors instead of four. I used a slightly different recipe - 1/8 tsp salt, 1/2 c butter, 3/4 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp almond, and I think a key is adding 1 1/2 tsps baking powder. (All other ingredients as listed, bake 8-10 min.) With this recipe the dough is ready to handle and shape without refrigeration. Once the log is formed, wrap in plastic wrap and freeze for one hour, then cut the log into 1/4" slices with a sharp knife. Cut each slice in half, making perfectly shaped rainbows. (See my3 pictures.) I made a double batch. The almond flavor was delicious and everyone who tried these cookies loved them. (Which was a lot of people, since I made 9 dozen!) I was very pleasantly surprised at how well I was able to mold the dough. I was worried that I would get lumps on one side, as the photo on the recipe shows, but all 7 of my layers were perfectly smooth and did not show the seams of the colors at all. I did not pinch the layer together as the directions suggest, but gently pressed them until they didn't pull apart any more. These took several hours to put together (maybe 8 because of all the layers) but I was aware of the amount of work it would take before I started. I still give this recipe 5 stars. 108 cookies for all my time wasn't a bad return, and they were each perfectly gift-able and absolutely delicious. I intend to make them every St. Patrick's Day as a tradition for my family and friends.

Sort of disappointing. Flavor was not bad, but they were a pain to make. Not worth the effort in my opinion.

My kids just loved this recipe. I made it for my son's preschool party. I found that if I put the dough in the freezer I didn't have to wait quite as long to prepare this.

I followed the recipe exactly but found the dough too wet to handle, I had to add a lot of flour to form the rainbows which affected the flavor. Having said that, the idea to make the rainbow pattern was great and I will use that again with my own biscuit recipe.

Very colorful! I divided the dough by rolling it into a 10 inch log. Using a ruler, I cut the log into four parts: 4 inches, 3 inches, 2 inches and 1 inch.

This was so much fun! The whole family got invoved to make this recipe. I followed exactly, I did find it much easier to roll the dough out on wax paper and then use the paper to help roll it into the log (this way the dough didn't break & crack) The recipe did take a bit long to prepare with all the refriderating-so after the log was made we keept in thr fridge overnight to bake the next day, that worked really well, I can see if it wasn't well chilled how it could be very messy!

Maybe I am just "culinarily-challenged" but I found this to be difficult. I couldn't split the dough up in the right amounts, so my layers were uneven. Good thing they were for a 4 year old's birthday party. They didn't care in the slightest.

I made these with my 6-yr-old and besides a slip-of-the-hand that probably doubled our almond extract, we followed the recipe exactly. The dough was the perfect firmness to work with and they were nice, soft cookies- even the next day.

It's a lot of work, but the colour and presentation make it a sure winner in the kids department!