Inspiration: On a random Saturday morning, whilst puttering around the house, I had The Food Network playing in the background and on popped the show Girl Meets Farm. Now, I must admit, I wasn’t paying particular attention to Molly Yeh….Until she started talking about making tie-dye cookies.
That perked my ears right up.
Watching her method, I decided they looked pretty easy, so I gave them a go.
From the Office of Me to You: Choose your food coloring gels with care. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a dull and potentially colorless bake!
Whereupon I learned not all gel food coloring brands are created equal. In the pic above, the basic cookie color was initially green. However, the organic dye I used disappeared entirely during the bake. An outcome the manufacturers failed to mention might happen on the back of the box.
I then discovered that the purple, produced by a different company, would fade a bit if the oven temperature exceeded 350 degrees. Prewarned, I added loads more food coloring than I usually would to counter the fading – as these cookies bake at 375 degrees.
(And usually is a relative term here, as this is the first time I’ve worked with food dyes in…..Well, the last time I can recall was in grade school for a rainbow cake for a carnival cake walk. I’m sure I’ve used it since then, but darned if I can remember when.)
The orange, the only non-natural dye of the lot, turned out perfectly.
In any case, as an eggless cookie, they turned out okay. I think these are better when eaten warm. And they are HUGE, which my taste testers found off-putting. So next time, rather than eyeballing the amount of dough in each cookie (as instructed), I will weigh each piece of colored dough and cut the size by half.
Christie: I can see these cookies being a popular holiday treat in the early days of Christie’s detectives’ careers. As eggs, amongst many other kitchen staples, were rationed during and after the Great Wars.
You must be logged in to post a comment.