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Christmas is right around the corner, our oven mitts are on, and flour is all over the floor.. Sound familiar?
Ah, cookie baking, whether you love it or hate it, whether you bake in a group or alone, it means Christmas is almost here. Millions of people all around the world search for the best cookie recipes, and some use their Great-Great Grandmas handwritten recipes handed down through generations. I don’t know if you’ve caught onto my theme yet if you’ve read the rest of my posts, but, I’m all about easy, healthy living for my family. While cookies may not be the healthiest snack you’ll eat this holiday season, I can at least help you create your own dye-free version!
Why reinvent the wheel? I love to share all the great things I find with you here and this is no exception. Here I have attached an amazing recipe for cutout sugar cookies with homemade icing! Other than using dye-free color for my icing, I followed this recipe to a T with great results.
While I’ll admit, the whole dough chilling and rolling out usually isn’t my jam, I really wanted to try something different this year. I promise though, it’s pretty easy! The dough was easy to make and I chilled it overnight. I rolled, cut out, baked, and iced the cookies the next day.
Full disclosure, decorating the cookies was rather time-consuming so make sure you allow enough time for this! It’s worth it, I promise! Once completed, I was left with adorable Christmas cookies that I can feel better about giving my child.
Why Dye-Free?
Are you wondering what all the dye-free fuss is about? Let me tell you! Basically, artificial food dyes can cause hyperactivity, food sensitivities, and skin issues. Several studies have been done on this, I have attached one from the National Library of Medicine that you can read here.
We do not live completely dye-free in our household, but I try to swap things out for dye-free options if I can! There are a million different dye-free options for snacks and medications now which makes things so much easier.
Where Can I Get Dye-Free Food Coloring and How Does it Work?
In classic busy mom fashion, I left buying a dye-free food coloring until the last minute. Well, pretty much all the stores were bought out of it. I called all of my local grocery stores and unfortunately, no one had it in stock. And even though I made these cookies 2 weeks before Christmas, when I searched on Amazon, I was looking at an after Christmas delivery. Boo. My last ditch effort was to call a local health foods store and bingo! They finally had what I was looking for! Christmas is saved!
The brand they carried was Junk-Free Kitchen Supply – Supernatural 100% Plant-Based Food Coloring. This dye-free food coloring comes in 4 colors -pomegranate (red), orange, yellow, and magic blackberry (purple/blue). The magic blackberry color is super cool because it can be made into 2 different colors! Add a splash of lemon juice to make purple, or a dash of baking soda to make blue! So basically with this pack, you get 5 colors. These come as a powder in individual little packets that you mix with a very small amount of water. I did not need to add a lot of each color to get the vibrancy I was looking for. When I was done, I closed them up tight and I’m hoping they will last through my next dye-free baking adventure.
*One thing to note with plant-based food coloring is, that while the colors may have an odor before they are mixed, they shouldn’t after you mix them! Most dye-free food coloring is tasteless and odorless once mixed.
Another dye-free food coloring people love is Watkins Assorted Food Coloring – both are great options.
Icing the Cookies
After you mix the icing (recipe here), separate it into bowls that you will then mix each color into. I kept a large amount of white and mixed blue, red, and green (blue/yellow mixed) into my icing. At the store I got disposable piping bags and a pack of 4 different piping tips. I decorated a lot of my cookies with white as a base and added the other colors on top once the white had set.
Get creative with your cookie decorating! While time-consuming, it is fun! I made each cookie a bit different so each one is unique. I am no master icer by any means, but I did my best and the results were super cute Christmas cookies. This was my first time doing this so some cookies turned out better than others but I think it’s one of those things that you’ll get better at as you do it more. I now know why professional cookies like this are more expensive! The bakers who make these have true skill and talent.
Can I Make My Own Dye-Free Food Coloring?
If I had not had success finding dye-free food coloring, my last option was to mix up my own. Here is a great blog post on how to mix up your own with supplies that are common in your house and at your local grocery store.
Keep in mind, that while the premade dye-free food coloring is usually odorless/tasteless, if you mix up your own from scratch, it may not be. The colors may also not be as vibrant. This is something you will really have to think about before you color the icing for your cookies. A cookie with icing that tastes like carrots may not be ideal!
Quick Links
Thanks for coming on my dye-free sugar cookie icing journey with me! I hope you learned some valuable things. I am going to attach some quick links for you below to make things easier to find:
Cut Out Sugar Cookie and Icing Recipe
How To Make Your Own Dye-Free Food Coloring From Scratch
Study on Artificial Dyes in Children
I hope this was helpful, please send me your favorite dye-free food coloring choices or just dye-free alternatives in general!
Best wishes for a great Holiday Season!
XOXO,
Katie
