Occasionally when I shop at a local store I purchase a package of champagne cookies. I never really paid attention to the name, just that they were fun looking and that I enjoy the taste. One day I thought, why are they called champagne cookies if they don’t contain champagne? From what I have read, they got their name because they are traditionally associated with celebrations and holidays. Makes sense, they are very festive looking.
Any day that you decide to bake these sweet, buttery, multi-colored slices of yumminess rolled in sprinkles will definitely become a celebration. Wow, are they good! It is basically a shortbread cookie, and who doesn’t love a shortbread cookie. They have a crumbly texture that just melts in your mouth.
The prep is a little time consuming, to be honest, but they are so worth the effort. What’s nice about these is that you can use whatever color food coloring and sprinkles you wish. Red and green at Christmas time, or maybe the colors of a team or school.
Let’s get baking!
Ingredients:
2 1/2 sticks of butter, softened
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp salt (or less if using salted butter)
3 cups of flour
Food coloring
Rainbow sprinkles
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
In a stand mixer, beat the softened butter for about a minute until smooth.
Add the confectioners sugar and beat on medium speed until well combined, about 1 – 2 minutes.
Add the vanilla extract and salt, combine well.
With the mixer on low speed add the flour 1 cup at a time until combined. You may need to turn the mixer up to medium if it starts to struggle. The dough will be very crumbly.
Turn onto a very lightly floured surface and kneed the dough together with your hands.
Cut the dough into three equal parts.
I used the mixer to add the food coloring, but you can do it by hand in a bowl if you’d prefer. When using the mixer I had to turn the speed up to high to get the coloring evenly distributed.
Once you have your three colored balls of dough, you are going to gently roll them into 24″ logs. It takes a little patience as the dough starts to fall apart.
Once this is complete, press the three separate logs together to make one. At this point if it is difficult to keep together just cut the log in half and work with one section at a time.
Pour out some sprinkles onto a cookie sheet, or your counter, and roll the logs in them while pressing gently.
Slice the logs into 1/4″ – 1/2″ slices and place 12 on a parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake for 10 – 12 minutes until bottoms are slightly brown. Cool on cookie sheets, then transfer to cooling rack.
Eat and repeat. Yum!
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