Susan & Michael's Paint Brush Cookies

These painted cookies skip the messy post-bake icing and do all the decorating before they go in the oven. An egg yolk mixed with water and food coloring creates a glossy, edible paint that bakes right into the surface of each cookie, giving you bright colors with a smooth, slightly shiny finish.

The dough is a straightforward sugar cookie base with shortening for structure. Chilling for a full hour firms up the fat so the dough rolls out cleanly to ⅛ inch without sticking or springing back. Skip the chill and you’ll be fighting soft, floppy dough that tears around cookie cutter edges.

Small paintbrushes (new, food-safe ones) give kids real control over the designs. The egg yolk paint is thick enough to stay where you put it and won’t bleed or run during baking. Each color stays distinct, so stripes, polka dots, and faces all come out sharp.

Kitchen Tips

• Keep the dough cold while working. Roll and cut one portion at a time, leaving the rest in the fridge. Warm dough spreads in the oven and loses its shape.
• Thin the paint with a tiny bit more water if it’s too thick to brush smoothly. You want it to flow off the brush, not drag.
• Bake until just light brown at the edges. Overbaking dulls the painted colors. Pull them a minute early if the colors are bright and the bottoms are set.

Variations

• Use gel food coloring instead of liquid drops for more vivid, concentrated colors.
• Add almond extract in place of half the vanilla for a more complex, bakery-style flavor.