150g butter (if made with centrifuged cream it's better, they'll be better)
100 g of icing sugar
1 organic lemon (grated peel)
a pinch of vanilla extract (optional, or you can reverse the amount of flavorings according to your taste)
a gel food coloring (purple for me, you choose your favorite color)
PROCEDURE
Prepare the shortcrust pastry by kneading all the ingredients by hand (try to be quick) or with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment.
Divide the dough into two parts. Divide one half into two again. A quarter of the dough must remain natural, so wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge. Add a few drops of food colouring to the larger dough (half) and knead. Remember to always add the food colouring gradually... there's always time to darken it. If you like the colour, wrap it in cling film. Take the remaining quarter and add more drops of food colouring to obtain a more intense colour but still in shades. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge. If you want to speed up the cooling or it's the summer season, you can put the dough in the freezer for a little while.
Roll out the shortcrust pastry to the same thickness. Make strips of the same width, this is important so that the squares match up.
Place them all on a tray and let them cool thoroughly (at this point you will have handled them and the pastry will have warmed up, so you will need to cool them again).
Make your Vichy patterned shortcrust pastry like this (you can WATCH THE VIDEO HERE)
Place 1 Intermediate color stripe, 1 Natural color stripe, and replicate: ININININI
stacked above 1 Dark color strip, 1 Intermediate color strip SISISISIS
Continue alternating these sequences for 4 times, making sure that the adjacent strips adhere well by sealing each other; if the pastry is 'dry' you can brush it with a damp brush so that it adheres well. You can also divide the 'tile' into two parts and stack them to obtain a larger loaf that allows you to obtain biscuits of the preferred size.
Wrap this 'brick' in cling film and put it in the fridge. It must cool down very well, I put it in the freezer and so the 'slices', which I made from Vichy shortcrust pastry, were compact. I made the biscuits with a flower cutter, but square, heart, round are fine.
Place the biscuits on a baking sheet covered with shortcrust pastry. If it has warmed up in the meantime, place it in the refrigerator for an hour before baking.
Bake in a preheated oven at 160 ° for about 15. Pay attention to the cooking .... it depends on the power of your oven and the thickness and size of your biscuits, they must not become golden but cook and maintain their bright colors.
