American Flag Cookies
Submitted by beardo1
Red, white, and blue striped slice-and-bake cookies for the Fourth of July. Simple sugar cookie dough tinted with food coloring, stacked, chilled, and sliced into patriotic treats.
YIELD
18 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
12 minREADY
75 minThese red, white, and blue striped cookies use a clever stacking technique to get that flag look without any decorating skills. You make one batch of sugar cookie dough, divide it into three portions, tint two with food coloring, then press them into bars and chill until firm.
The trick is getting even layers. Shape each colored portion into bars that are the same length and width so when you stack them, the stripes come out uniform in every slice. Chilling the stacked bars until they’re truly firm (not just cool) gives you clean cuts without the colors smearing together.
These are a hit at Fourth of July cookouts, Memorial Day gatherings, or any patriotic celebration where you want a festive dessert that doesn’t require a piping bag.
Kitchen Tips
- Chill the stacked bars for at least 2 hours, or until they slice cleanly without squishing. Overnight works great.
- Use gel food coloring instead of liquid for more vibrant reds and blues without adding extra moisture to the dough.
- Slice a consistent ¼ inch thick. Thicker slices won’t bake evenly; thinner ones may brown too fast.
- Let the baked cookies cool completely on the sheet before moving them. They’re fragile while warm.
Variations
- Stars and stripes: Use a tiny star cookie cutter on a blue-tinted sheet of dough and press the stars into the white layer before stacking.
- Natural colors: Swap food coloring for beet powder (red) and butterfly pea flower powder (blue) for a dye-free version.
Ingredients
Directions
In a mixing bowl, combine margarine, egg white, and vanilla extract.
In anther mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, and baking powder.
Mix wet ingredients with dry ingredients just until moistened.
Divide dough into 3 equal portions.
Tint 1 portion with red food coloring and another portion with blue food coloring.
Mix throughly to get a uniform color.
Untinted dough represents white.
Form each portion into long bars.
Wrap each bar in waxed paper.
Refrigerate until easy to handle. Remove wax paper and stack bars on top of each other in the desired color arrangement.
Wrap entire bars in waxed paper again and chill until firm.
Preheat oven to 350℉ (180℃). Slice bars into ¼ inches thick.
Place on baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes.
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