New York’s Coolest Pastry Chef Explains How to Make All-Natural Food Coloring for Holiday Cookies

All-natural dyes have emerged as a sustainable alternative when it comes to coloring shirts, sheets, and even furniture. But considering them for something like holiday cookies involves an added challenge: not only do they have to live up to a nostalgic ideal of being bright and sparkly, but they’ve also got to taste good. While a towel might look great in the fuschia that comes from cochineal bugs, the thought of ingesting thoraxes on gingerbread isn’t exactly appetizing. So Natasha Pickowicz, the head pastry chef at New York’s Flora Bar and Altro Paradiso, turns to hibiscus, matcha, and even cabbage, which when boiled creates a shade of purple-blue.

Pickowicz has always focused on fresh, natural ingredients. “I want food to be delicious and to be familiar,” she says, “And if someone asks me ‘what’s in this’ I could tell them, and it wouldn’t be a list of 20 or 30 ingredients; it would be two or three things.” Her focus turned to frosting —and a subsequent all-natural cookie-decorating class (held this year on December 17, and again after the holidays)—when she was looking to create more community around Flora Bar, the restaurant in the Met Breuer building on the Upper East Side.

She eventually got to know the Lenox Hill Neighborhood House, a nonprofit that’s headquartered around the corner. Among their many programs (adult education, after-school care), Lenox Hill practices what they call “farm to institution eating,” actively sourcing their ingredients locally, and from organic farmers. “I wanted [the cookie-decorating class] to be in the spirit of the kind of programming they were doing,” Pickowicz says.

When cookie artisans-in-training gather at the Met Breuer (email maureen@matter-house.com about a reservation, or to ask about the next class), they will apply royal icing to gingerbread, choosing from a palette of colors created from tinctures—the result of whole plants boiled in water—and powders. Sprinkles will be natural too: seeds, flower petals, and dried herbs. “It’s about showing people that ingredients they see and eat and interact with all the time have multiple purposes,” Pickowicz says. Plus, the resulting range of hues have a certain sophistication; they’re a grown-up take on the artificial primaries that likely dominated your childhood kitchen. “All of these soft yellows and greens and pinks and purples; to me that is aesthetically so much more pleasing than the colors in the kits you see at the grocery store.”

Here, the gingerbread and frosting to make before you begin your own colorful experimentation:

Flora Coffee Gingerbread

3C all purpose flour
1/2t baking soda
1/4t baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter, softened and cubed
1/2C dark brown sugar
2t powdered ginger
1t cinnamon
1/2t ground cloves
1/2t ground black cardamom
1/2t ground black pepper
1/2t kosher salt
1 egg
1/2C molasses
1t vanilla extract

In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, dark brown sugar, and molasses until smooth.

Add the egg and vanilla extract and paddle to combine, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl as you go.

In another small bowl, combine flours, leaveners, and spices and whisk until combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the creamed butter in additions of two, being careful not to overmix. The batter should not have any streaky flour in it, but it should be handled with a light touch.

Wrap dough in plastic and rest for at least 1-2 hours, or until chill to the touch.

When ready to make cookies, roll out dough on a piece of parchment lightly floured. Push out dough to a thickness of 1/2". Let rest and cool completely before attempting to cut out cookies.

Transfer cut out cookie shapes to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Let chill again before baking, in order to get sharpest edges and cleanest baking.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake cookies until just set, about 8-10 minutes for a cookie 3" across. Let cool completely before decorating.

Cookies will keep 3-5 days in a container stored at room temperature.

Royal Icing

1 lb powdered sugar, sifted (that's one box of the Domino brand)
1/2t cream of tartar
3oz egg whites, room temperate
1/2t kosher salt

In a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar until frothy. Add the powdered sugar and whip until smooth. The icing should look thick, glossy, and smooth. Add the salt to taste.

For a slightly thinner icing, add a teaspoon of lemon juice, little by little, until you've achieved the desired consistency.

If mixing in natural dyes, use royal icing while room temperature. If using later, pour into a container and refrigerate. The icing will become stiff as it cools!