Sometimes my inspiration is activated from just one word. This time, the key word turned out to be “burger”, as my husband was preparing hamburgers for dinner, and the children ate them all without a rest. Since I only EAT meat, not cook, I decided to make my own “burgers” by using colored shortcrust pastry as the “meat”.

Shortcrust pastry is ideal for sculpting. I always enjoy working with it especially when I want to make some colored cookies. Its consistency allows the use of liquid natural colorant (the main thing here is not to overdo it), without especially affecting the structure of the dough itself. The reason is simple – in my recipe the dough turns out to be quite dense and crumbly, and to keep it in shape you need to mix it well. By adding a few drops or even a spoonful of natural essence, the dough becomes more elastic.

If we talk about food colors, then I must admit that I only once used artificial ones (when I needed a light blue color). In general, if I need to “color” something, I choose natural ingredients – carrots, beets or seasonings. Of course, natural food colorants almost always change the taste of the product, slightly, but still add the taste of the original color source. Our “sniffer” (eldest son) accurately identifies even the smell of which “tint” I used. That is why for the green color I had to abandon the matcha in favor of spinach (it has a less pronounced smell).

Today’s market is already full of a variety of natural colorants, both in pure form and in the form of mixtures, as a powder or as a liquid. So longer no need to make the colorants at home by themselves.

However if you still have the desire, then here is the list of products and colors that these products give. Remember that when heated, the color may change slightly.

Natural colors:

Pink: strawberries, raspberries

Red: beets, tomatoes, sweet paprika

Orange: carrots, paprika, sweet potato

Yellow: Saffron, Turmeric

Green: match, spinach

Blue: red cabbage + baking soda

Purple: blueberries, purple sweet potato

Brown: coffee, tea, cocoa

Black: activated carbon, squid ink

These products can be used in the form of puree, essences or powder (it can be prepared after dehydration of the ingredient, followed by grinding it in a blender).

In my recipe, I needed the following colors: green (spinach), yellow (turmeric) and red (paprika + tomato powder). As a topping, I used black cumin seeds.

 Colored sugar cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 3/4 cups wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• A pinch of salt
• 250 g butter
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1 egg
• Vanilla essence

Cooking method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C. In a bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

2. In another bowl, combine the butter and sugar, and then add the egg and vanilla essence.

3. Gradually mix wet and dry ingredients.

4. Divide the dough into 4 parts: for green dough, add spinach essence or colorant, for red – paprika or colorant, for yellow – turmeric or colorant.

5. To make “sugar burgers”, roll out the dough of different colors in small sausages and combine them, as shown on the picture, and put them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

You can also make cookies in the shape of flowers, vegetables, and fruits. Just turn on the imagination.

6. Bake for 10-12 minutes in the oven at a temperature of 190 ° C.