TUTTI FRUTTI SLICE & BAKES
i used to eat the arts & crafts
SWEET TEETH
I was one of those rabid children who ate the Play-Doh, Silly Putty, and Slime in art class. The scented markers tantalized me to do more than just sniff—I couldn’t resist licking them like lollipops. On one occasion, when my teacher left the room to take another kid to the nurse, I gulped down a third of a cerulean crayon, desperate to feel the hue dance through my digestive tract. Sometimes, when I look up at the sky on a clear day, I can still taste the brilliance of the blue.
While I’ve outgrown snacking on art supplies, my desire to devour color, brightness, and beauty has grown even more ferocious in adulthood. I long for everything I eat to be fluorescently flavored, to make both my mouth and eyes water.
The inspiration for my recipes often comes from the visual feast of the world around me: paintings, prints, flower bouquets, movie scenes, and strangers’ outfits I see on the subway. If I fixate on an image long enough, the colors morph into flavors and the shapes into texture.
For example, these Tutti Frutti Slice & Bakes were born from a blurry picture of a bath bomb dissolving in my tub. As I sank into the warm water, the mountains of bubbles began to burst, and the bright colors spilled into one another. I couldn’t help but try to bake something inspired by the mundane beauty.
I settled on these cookies because they not only resembled the image, but I also found them to echo young Ian’s desire to eat the art, as marbling the dough is not unlike building a Play-Doh sculpture at a table in art class all those years ago.
The best part of these cookies is that you can customize them to serve your artistic vision. There are endless flavor combinations—I use banana, raspberry, blueberry, and lemon, but any freeze-dried fruit and citrus will be great. In terms of the visual, I am drawn to bolder streaks of color, but you can mold them however you’d like, with more marbling if your eyes crave something more fluid and intertwined. This one is about playing with your food!
THE RECIPE
TUTTI FRUTTI SLICE & BAKES
makes 40 cookies
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups (34g) freeze-dried banana*
1 1/2 cups (34g) freeze-dried raspberries*
1 1/2 cups (34g) freeze-dried blueberries*
2 1/3 cups (299g) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (4g) Diamond Crystal kosher salt**
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
~2 tsp (4g) lemon zest from half a large lemon
16 tbsp (2 sticks/226g) unsalted butter, softened
1 large (50g) egg
1 tsp (4g) pure vanilla extract
Directions:
Blitz your fruit: In a food processor or spice grinder, blitz your freeze-dried bananas until they are a fine powder. Dump into a small container, set aside, and wipe clean the food processor/spice grinder. Repeat the process with the freeze-dried raspberries and then again with the blueberries, and set aside each in separate containers.
Whisk together your dry ingredients: In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together your all-purpose flour and salt.
Make the dough: In the bowl of your stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment, massage the lemon zest into the sugar by rubbing them together between your fingers to release any oils until it resembles wet sand. Add in your butter and beat on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, add in your egg and vanilla, and beat on medium-high for an additional minute. Turn off the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add in your flour mixture. Slowly pulse the mixer until all the flour has been absorbed into the dough.
Divide your dough & add your fruit: Divide your dough into three equal portions. Add the first back into the bowl of the stand mixer and add your freeze-dried banana powder. Beat on low until the banana is fully incorporated. Remove the dough from the bowl and form it into a 10-inch log on a large piece of plastic wrap. Add another third of your dough back into the bowl of the stand mixer and add in your freeze-dried raspberry powder. Beat on low until the raspberry is fully incorporated. Remove the dough from the bowl and form it into a 10-inch log parallel to the banana log. Press the two logs together. Add the last third of your dough into the bowl of the stand mixer. Add in your freeze-dried blueberry powder. Beat on low until the blueberry is fully incorporated. Remove the dough from the bowl and form it into a 10-inch log on the plastic wrap. Lift the formed log and press it on top of the banana and raspberry dough.
Marble your dough: Cut your 10-inch log in half crosswise to form two 5-inch ones. Stack them on top of each other and mold back into a 10-inch log. Repeat the slicing and molding process twice more (three times more if you want more marbling), so you end up with a 10-inch log.
Shape & chill: Fold the top and bottom of the plastic wrap over the dough tightly. Fold the sides inward, and roll the dough against your counter so you have a relatively cylindrical log about 2 inches in diameter. Transfer your log to the fridge and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Preheat & prep: When ready to bake, place your oven racks into the upper-middle and lower-middle slots. Preheat your oven to 325°. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove your logs from the fridge and unwrap.
Slice & bake: Using a sharp knife, slice your log into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Place 12 rounds onto each baking sheet about an inch apart (they don't spread much at all so they can be close together). Transfer your sheets into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until they have puffed slightly and are firm in the center, swapping the sheets once halfway through baking. While the first batch bakes, leave the rest of the dough to chill in the fridge.
Rinse, repeat, eat: Allow your baking sheets to cool for at least 10 minutes if reusing them, and repeat step 8 to bake off the remaining cookie dough. Let cool and enjoy!
Leftovers?: Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Notes:
*If you want to use other freeze-dried fruit/citrus zest, that’s no problem! Just swap in their names for the rest of the recipe and follow the instructions the same way. I recently made a version with freeze-dried banana, mango, and pineapple, and lime zest, and they were incredible!
**If you’re using any other type or brand of salt (i.e. Morton, or sea salt), I suggest scaling back to 1 tsp.
Works of art!