Pantone Cookies

Last week, I surprised my friend Holly with a big batch of these little guys for her birthday:

They were a huge hit, especially with all the graphic designers at Holly’s and my office (come on, who can say no to treats as colorful as these?!) Rather than just showing you the photos of these darling cookies, I’ve included a tutorial so you can make your very own batch of edible Pantones for the designer or color nut in your life. Also, check out this post from Kim Creative Star, where I originally got the idea for the cookies. She has some great suggestions on presentation.

These are a great weekend project. Not just because they take a lot of time to put together, but because lots of steps require you to walk away for a little while, then come back and do something else. Whenever I have a recipe like that, I use the down time to get odds and ends done around the house or run out and take care of a quick errand. My mother helped me out with these during a visit a few weeks ago. It took us most of a Saturday to get them finished (partially because we made over a hundred of them…), but we had an absolute blast making them!

We made the cookies about three weeks before they were to be served and stored the frosted cookies in air-tight freezer containers. Two days before, I got the cookies out to thaw them and write the name and numbers on. They took very well to the freezing and thawing – I wasn’t able to detect a difference in taste or texture.

To start, you’ll need a batch of sugar cookie dough you can roll out and cut. You can use my decorator sugar cookie recipe (which made about 10 dozen of this rectangular-shaped cookie) or any sugar cookie recipe of your own. Store bought dough that is meant to be rolled out (not break and bake or slice and bake style) will work as well.

The icing we used on these cookies is royal icing. We selected it because of the control you have over where it goes on the cookie and the seamless, matte finish it has when it dries. You can mix up any color you’d like for the cookies. We did about three cookies per each color we mixed up. For us, it was easiest to start with a very light hue, then add in more color to make it darker and darker as we colored more cookies. Any royal icing recipe should work pretty well. We used the royal icing recipe from Joy of Baking

(Nearly) Everything you'll need to make the cookies (large bowl not pictured)

What you’ll need:

Rolling pin

Pasta roller, pizza wheel or rectangular cookie cutter

Baking sheets and cooling racks

Large bowl with tight fitting lid or plastic cling wrap to cover

Small bathroom cups

Toothpicks

Food coloring

Black food marker

To make the cookies:

1. Roll out the dough into a large sheet 1/8” thick.
2. Using a pasta roller or pizza wheel, cut the dough into rectangles 1 ¾” wide and 2 ½” tall (note: our cookies were a bit crammed for writing space. If you’d like more space or bigger cookies, increase the size to 2 ¼” inches wide and 3” tall). We used a yardstick to measure and cut the strips. Provided it is the right size, a rectangular cookie cutter may also work.
3. Carefully transfer the cut dough onto cookie sheets and bake according to recipe instructions. Once the cookies are baked, allow them to cool on a rack for at least an hour.

To make the frosting:

1.  Mix up the icing according to your recipe in a large bowl. Transfer a third of it into a smaller dish and tightly cover the large bowl. Royal icing dries out quickly so it’s important to cover any you’re not using.
2. Leaving the icing its original white color, apply a rectangle to the bottom third of the cookie. Try to keep the borders as straight and a close to the edge of the cookie as possible). Repeat until all cookies have the partial frosting. Allow the icing to harden completely (at least 1 hour). Add any leftover icing back into the original container.
3. Place 1-2 tablespoons of royal icing into a small cup. Add in food coloring until desired hue is attained. Spread the icing on the remaining two thirds of the cookie, again keeping the borders as straight and close to the edge as possible. Allow to dry for at least one hour, or until hardened completely.
4. Once cookies have hardened completely, use an edible marker to write “PANTONE” across the bottom.  For a genuine Pantone look, you can use a color-matching guide to look up the numbers and write them on the cookie as well.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions!  Even better – share your photos here or on the Spoonful of Something Facebook page (don’t forget to “like” the page as well!) if you are so inclined to make a batch of your own. More pictures of the full batch of cookies available on the Facebook page as well.