Star-Spangled Cookies (2024)

Red, white, and blue star-spangled cookies are perfect for the 4th of July!

Please see just below the recipe for a list of recommended tools for this recipe with links to Amazon, including cookie cutters, gel food coloring, silver star sprinkles, and disco dust

4.95 from 18 votes

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Cook Time: 10 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Author: Sam Merritt

• ▢ 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter softened
• ▢ ¾ cups (150 g) sugar
• ▢ 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 1 large egg yolk
• ▢ 2 ¼ cups (295 g) all-purpose flour

Marble Icing Glaze

• ▢ 3 cups (415 g) powdered sugar sifted
• ▢ 3 Tablespoons light corn syrup
• ▢ 3-4 Tablespoons milk
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon almond (or other, preferred) extract optional
• ▢ gel food coloring I used Americolor "red red" and "electric blue"
• ▢ silver star sprinkles There's an Amazon link for these just below the recipe, though I was able to find them cheaper at my local cake shop!
• ▢ luster dust/disco dust Optional, there is also an Amazon link for this below the recipe

Cookies

• Preheat oven to 350F.

• In KitchenAid mixer or with electric hand-mixer beat your butter until well-creamed.

  1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter

• Add sugar to the mixing bowl and beat with the butter until well combined (about 30 seconds).

  ¾ cups (150 g) sugar

• Stir in vanilla extract and salt, stirring until well-combined, and scrape down the sides of the bowl using a rubber spatula to ensure ingredients are well-incorporated.

  1 teaspoon vanilla extract, ½ teaspoon salt

• Add egg yolk and beat until combined

  1 large egg yolk

• With mixer on medium-low speed, gradually add flour until well-incorporated (you will definitely need to scrape down the sides and the bottom of the bowl several times for this, as the mixture is fairly dry and crumbs tend to settle at the bottom of the bowl).

  2 ¼ cups (295 g) all-purpose flour

• Transfer dough to clean surface and use your hands to form it into a cohesive ball.

• Flatten into a disk (about 1" thick), cover with clear wrap, and chill for 15 minutes.

• Once dough has chilled, transfer it to a clean, lightly floured surface and use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll out to about ¼" thickness.

• Lightly flour your cookie cutters and cut out your shapes, transferring them to ungreased cookie sheet.

• Once you have cut out all of the shapes that you can, be sure to re-combine the scraps and roll out and cut out again to get the maximum number of cookies from your dough.

• Bake on 350F for 10-12 minutes (longer if you are using larger cookie cutter) and allow cookies to cool completely before dipping.

Marble Icing Glaze

• In a large bowl, combine sifted powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp milk, and light corn syrup. Whisk until smooth. If mixture is too dry, add additional milk, one teaspoon at a time until mixture can be stirred.

  3 cups (415 g) powdered sugar, 3 Tablespoons light corn syrup, 3-4 Tablespoons milk

• Stir in extracts.

  ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, ¼ teaspoon almond (or other, preferred) extract

• Glaze should be thick, to test that it is the right consistency drop a few droplets on top of a test cookie. If the glaze remains stiff, it needs to be thinned. If it runs off the cookie, it is too thin and needs more powdered sugar. If it settles down smoothly, it is just right.

• Divide glaze into four small bowls.

• Working with one bowl at a time, use a toothpick (a different toothpick for each color) and dip it into the food coloring bottle and then into the glaze. You want a small dot of food coloring (see video).

  gel food coloring

• Drag a toothpick through the food coloring and glaze until it is prettily swirled/marbled.

• Holding your cookie at the base, dip the surface of each cookie into the glaze (take a look at your first cookie -- are you satisfied with the pattern? Adjust whorls with additional food coloring as needed).

• Once the first bowl runs out or the colors become too muddled together from dipping, move onto your next bowl of food coloring (you will probably need to stir first before adding your coloring, as the surface may have begun to harden).

• Repeat steps 5-7 until all cookies have been dipped. Allow them to harden at least 30 minutes (may take longer) for glaze to set. Enjoy!

  silver star sprinkles, luster dust/disco dust

• Store uneaten cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.