Halloween Sugar Cookies

Slice butter into several slices once softened. Put butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until fluffy, about two minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, salt and lemon zest. Gradually mix the flour, salt and lemon zest mixture into the butter mixture until well combined. Squeeze the lemon juice into the bowl and continue to mix.

Divide the mixture into three equal parts on your work surface. Place 1/3 of the dough into the bottom of a 9×5 inch loaf pan and press it into the pan with your fingers until evenly spread across the bottom.

For the remaining 2/3s, mix several drops of yellow gel food coloring into it until the dough is a bright yellow. Take half of that and place it in the loaf pan, patting it down on top of the white dough.

For the final 1/3 that is now bright yellow, add red food coloring and mix it in until it is a bright orange. Pat that into the loaf pan on top of the other two colors. Refrigerate for two hours.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Turn dough out of the pan onto a work surface and slice off about ¾’s of an inch like you are slicing a piece of bread. Cut the slice into your preferred size of triangles. Repeat with the remaining dough and place the triangles on a parchment or foil-lined cookie sheet.

Bake 7-8 minutes or until slightly hard. They will continue to cook once taken out of the oven. Cool on a wire rack.

This recipe makes about 100 small cookies.

Adapted from MyRecipes.com.