![Tie Dye butter cookies](https://cdn.statically.io/img/assets.bonappetit.com/photos/5dc5890e9c5b860008f8b96c/1:1/w_2560%2Cc_limit/1219-COOKIES-Tie-Dye.jpg)
Did you hear? Tie-dye is back. But now it’s not just that grimy T-shirt your friend who still follows Phish will never wash. It’s couture. And thanks to Rick Martinez’s so-very-2020 natural-dye Swirl-n-Dip method, it’s also edible. Best of all? The butter cookie that acts as your canvas is extremely simple to make (like, six ingredients simple), so you can spend most of your time on the fun part: unleashing your inner artiste. When you’re decorating, no need to panic if your first attempts don’t work out. Simply wipe off the failed glaze, let the cookie dry for about five minutes, and try again.
Recipe information
Yield
Makes about 24
Ingredients
Cookies
14
½
1¼
2
2
2
Glaze
2
6
2
2
¼
Special Equipment
Preparation
Cookies
Step 1
Using an electric mixer on high speed, beat butter, sugar, and salt in a large bowl, scraping down sides and bottom of bowl as needed, until light and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add egg yolks and vanilla and beat until incorporated, about 1 minute. Reduce speed to low, add 2 cups flour, and mix until incorporated. Dough will be semifirm but can be rolled out without chilling. If your kitchen is very warm and/or dough is sticky, pat it into a 1"-thick disk, wrap in plastic, and chill 15 minutes to let firm up before rolling out.
Step 2
Place a rack in middle of oven; preheat to 350°. Roll out dough on a lightly floured sheet of parchment paper, dusting with more flour as needed to keep dough from sticking, to about ¼" thick. Punch out shapes as desired with lightly floured cookie cutters and transfer to 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1½" apart. Pat scraps into a 1"-thick disk, wrap with plastic, and chill 10 minutes if soft.
Step 3
Bake 1 sheet of cookies, rotating halfway through, until edges are golden brown, 10–15 minutes. Let cookies cool 10 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. Bake remaining sheet of cookies, then repeat process with remaining dough.
Step 4
Do Ahead: Dough can be made 1 month ahead; wrap tightly and freeze. Cookies can be baked 2 days ahead; store airtight at room temperature.
Glaze
Step 5
Whisk 1 cup powdered sugar, 3 Tbsp. milk, 2 tsp. food-coloring powder, and half of salt in a small bowl until no lumps remain. Glaze should be the consistency of heavy cream; add more milk if needed. For a deeper color, whisk in more powder 1 tsp. at a time until desired color is achieved; adjust with milk if needed. Repeat with second food-coloring powder, remaining salt, remaining 1 cup powdered sugar, and remaining 3 Tbsp. milk, adjusting intensity of color as desired.
Step 6
Spoon 1 tsp. first glaze in the center of a small plate. Drizzle 1 tsp. second glaze over the first and use a toothpick to slightly swirl colors together; don’t go overboard. (If you want to decorate larger cookies, add 1 tsp. glaze to plate for each additional inch.)
Step 7
Gently press the top of a cookie into glaze, then lift up and allow excess glaze to drip back onto the plate. Using a toothpick, pop any air bubbles and swirl colors more if desired. Transfer to a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet. Repeat with 2 more cookies, adding ½ tsp. of each color of glaze to plate before each cookie is dipped. The glaze will lose its swirly effect at this point. Clean plate and repeat process, decorating cookies in batches of 3 until all cookies have been glazed. Let sit until glaze is set, at least 2 hours.
Step 8
Do Ahead: Cookies can be glazed 1 day ahead. Store tightly wrapped on a rimmed baking sheet at room temperature.
Step 9
*Cooks Note: If you want to use regular liquid food coloring, whisk 1 cup powdered sugar, 2 Tbsp. milk, and a pinch of salt in a small bowl until no lumps remain. Add food coloring drop by drop, stirring to incorporate, then thin glaze if needed with 1 tsp. milk at a time until it reaches the consistency of heavy cream.
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Reviews (44)
Back to TopVery fun, and tastes like the perfect shortbread. My time saving tips: 1. If white isn’t one of your colors, make a separate bowl of white and treat as a third color in the swirl. It helps the colors remain distinct. 2. You don’t really have to bother with swirling your colors. I found that drizzling the colors on the plate plus the act of picking the cookies up created plenty of swirl and tie dye effect with less effort. 3. Assuming you’re doing one and two, you don’t have to wipe the plate clean, you can just keep drizzling fresh icing on top of the old and it still doesn’t get too muddy. I just made these with red, green and white for a xmas party. 4. The icing is very sweet so I added a squeeze of lemon juice and pinch of salt to each bowl of icing. Yum.
Emily
Los Angeles
12/9/2023
these were awesome. I ended up chilling them for about 30 minutes and it yielded a very short and buttery texture so can't speak to it the baking them straight from rolling. tie dye was fun- you basically have 3 goes with the colors on the plate before it ends up looking too muddy
Grace
Charlotte, NC
12/17/2022
these are my go-to christmas decorating cookies. i finally ditched the always-too-sweet, never-that-enjoyable sugar cookie recipe that everyone wants to ice and have been making these each christmas. the icing is easy to pipe or dip, and the flavor balance is perfect. i add a dash of cinnamon and cardamom to the dough and it really puts these cookies over the top. could not recommend more!
Jack A.
Wheaton, IL
12/24/2021
@ Anonymous from N Carolina: I had the same question as you about the white icing. But then I watched the video linked to below and saw that Rick used multiple colors for his, and left some glaze without food coloring for the white. Watch the video— I think it will help. And have fun! Bon cookie!
Audra B.
Seattle, WA
1/23/2021
I made these with my 4 year old for 4th of July using red, white and blue glaze. Turned out delicious. Loved the no chill dough! She loved making the tie dye design with the glaze. Will definitely put this one in the cook book! Thanks!
dlblackwell87
Everett,WA
7/1/2020
I baked these cookies all Memorial Day weekend. The first time I made these they turned out beautiful and delicious! Decorating the cookies was so much fun and since I didn't plan ahead and only had gel food coloring on hand, that's what I used. The second time, I baked these cookies I made the mistake of using the flour I was storing in my freezer. It was a huge oops and resulted in my cookie dough never forming. Made a great cookie dough snack but felt a dumb for not realizing sooner about my flour mistake. This third time I attempted to make these cookies, I was at a loss for why my dough wouldn't form. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for the recipe Rick!
Leslie Mariana
Olathe, KS
5/28/2020
This is a question rather than a review. From the pictures it looks like there is also some white glaze in the background, but I don't see this in the directions. Did those of you who tried this recipe just use 2 bright colors or did you also use white? Thanks
Anonymous
North Carolina
4/19/2020