Happy Cinco De Mayo! In honor of the many important days in May, I made a batch of confetti cookies to celebrate. The fifth of May marks the (almost) halfway point between my birthday and Kevin’s birthday. Kevin counts May fourth as a celebratory day as well because of Star Wars. Adding in May fourth means there is a celebration almost every other day during the first seven days of May. While I am excited for the festivities in May, I am most excited to finally finish my last day of spring semester classes next Friday. The past week has been filled with studying for exams, consecutive days of taking exams, and going to work. By the time Friday approached, I was extremely exhausted. All I wanted to do Friday evening was curl up in my favorite corner of the couch and catch up on shows I’ve missed from the last couple of weeks. Kevin was craving ice cream and had to convince me to get up from my favorite spot on the couch to go on an ice cream run. We ended up heading to a drive through Sonic to enjoy some ice cream as a celebratory treat. When Saturday rolled around, I was ready to prepare a celebration dessert in honor of Kevin’s upcoming birthday. I wanted the treat to be festive, colorful, and portable. After some contemplation, I ended up making a dozen of confetti cookies. My confetti cookies are a cross between my favorite sugar cookie and a festive confetti cake. Kevin isn’t a huge fan of cake, so cookies were definitely the best option to go with. These confetti cookies made for the perfect early birthday treat for Kevin. When I was ready to make the cookies, I started with my basic cookie dough base and then folded in ¼ cup of sprinkles. Next, I rolled out each cookie and topped each rolled cookie with a bit more sprinkles. Adding in this step ensures the cookies are visibly bright and colorful once baked. In between prepping and baking my cookies, Kevin and I watched episodes of Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby on television. We just happened upon this channel on television and started watching back to back episodes. The next thing we knew, we ended up watching three episodes. The show was pretty interesting. Two hosts travel through the world to take a look behind the scenes of unique hotels. I was impressed by the vast number of amazing hotels out there in the world. I just hope one day in the future Kevin and I could visit some of these hotels. For now, we will just celebrate over confetti cookies and catch a glimpse of the amazing attractions from afar. To bring Kevin’s birthday treat to the next level, I made some ice cream cookie sandwiches and rolled the edges of the ice cream in more sprinkles.
For the confetti cookies:
· 1½ cups all-purpose flour
· ¼ teaspoon baking powder
· ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
· ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
· ½ cup granulated sugar
· 1 large egg, room temperature
· ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
· ¼ cup rainbow sprinkles, plus additional 1 tablespoon for topping cookies
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
2) In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and kosher salt. Set aside.
3) In a large bowl, mix the butter and sugar together. Add the large egg. Stir to incorporate the egg into the butter and sugar. Add the vanilla extract. Gently fold in the flour mixture until incorporated. Fold in ¼ cup of rainbow sprinkles.
4) Use your hands to roll out about 1-inch balls of cookies. Gently press to flatten the cookies. Distribute the tablespoon of sprinkles among the cookies.
5) Bake the cookies in the oven for 13-15 minutes. Let cookies cool for 5 minutes before serving.
Takeaways: The confetti cookies turned out great and was the perfect cross between a sugar cookie and a confetti cake. To brighten up the cookies even more, you can fold in some lemon zest, orange zest, or both. You can also add in ¼ teaspoon of almond extract to further enhance the flavor of the cookies.