Pro secret to vibrantly colored cookies

Our test kitchen director wanted to give these sandwich cookies deeply saturated patriotic hues, but using liquid food coloring made the dough sticky and hard to work with, plus left the cookies with washed-out colors. After some experimentation, however, she found a winner: AmeriColor Soft

Gel Paste in Royal Blue and Red Red ($2.25 per .75 oz. bottle, AmeriColorCorp.com). These gels have a thicker consistency that won’t change the firmness of dough. Even better, the dye’s specially designed color concentrate doesn’t weep or separate during baking, ensuring picture-perfect results.