I use colored sugar...but that is adding sugar. I have eaten them where the dough was tinted, but frankly I don't like that much food color...I think I can taste it.
I also have colored some "just whites" and water and brushed it on....but you have to be very careful not to burn that.
Linda C

Clare, I hate to roll out cookies..So I roll the dough into big fat rolls, refrigerate and/or freeze in plastic wrap, then slice them.

Here is a link that might be useful: This is the recipe I've been using..

Mix egg yolks with 1/4 t water per yolk. Dye with food colors and use as paint on unbaked cookies. Bake as usual.

You can also "dress them up" a bit by incorporating various things into the batter. Flecks of dried fruit, roasted and chopped nuts, toasted coconut, crushed candies (I like candy canes), citrus zest.

This is our favorite recipe from the Kansas Wheat Commission (see link below). The neighbors love them too ;-) -Grainlady

Here is a link that might be useful: Whole Wheat Sugar Cookies/KS Wheat Comm.

This is tedious but very pretty.

I mix a small amount of several paste food colorings on a watercolor palette. I stick a toothpick into the food coloring paste & grab just a pin-prick quantity. Then, put it on my palette & mix with about a teaspoon of water. Repeat with other colors. Then, I paint on the cookies like they were a canvas using small artist brushes that I keep just for cookie use. Zero calories. The colors hold up excellent to freezing/thawing. They are, however, outrageously time consuming. Works well though for the Brown Bag molded sugar cookies.

/tricia

Like rachelellen, I've mixed up egg yolk and food coloring and used it as paint. Grandma's favorite was just a dusting of nutmeg on top of sugar cookies.

Annie

Speaking of grandmas--my grandma used to make two kinds of cookies--molasses and these dry, plain sugar cookies, cut out with a scalloped edge. I never liked those, lol! She had a cookie jar on her summer porch, so that was the first thing we hit whenever we came to visit. I was always kinda bummed when those sugar cookies were in there. But what wonder of wonders when there were homeade donuts!! The sugar cookies had kind of a nutmeg taste. I didn't like them as a kid, but I think I would like them now as an adult.

Thanks for the suggestions. For future reference I will save the WW cookie recipe. I am trying to use up dough that I have in the freezer. I made sugar cookies for an occassion and have left over dough. I like the idea of adding things to them like nuts and dried fruit. I don't like to use dyes because my son can't have that.

tricia I would love to see pictures of your artistic cookies. I bet they look too pretty to eat. And you have more energy then I do!

Clare

Here's an option, although I don't know if it works with every kind of dough. Make a little cookie tart. Roll out the bottom round, fill with a dollop of jam, place another circle on top, seal the edges and then cut a big cross in the top for the steam to escape. Roll the dough into balls and make jam thumbprints. Or just make little rounds and fill with a tiny amount of jam and fold over and cut a steam slit. Or make a little log and fill with nuts and raisins and roll up like a cigar. Like I said, might not work with every kind of dough, but worth a try. I made those jam tarts once, they were a pain but very delicious.

Google "jam filled cookies" and you will find lots of fun pics. of different ways to do it. Also can make a figgy filling without using sugar.

What about using negative space to decorate them? In other words, cut your cookies into whatever shapes you want and then use some of those tiny canape cutters to cut out other shapes within the cookie? So a round cookie could have a square- or heart-shaped hole in its center, or cutout polka dots, which adds dimension while actually subtracting calories.

Then you could either reroll the cutouts or stick them on top of other cookies to add height and interest to those.

Maureen, there are cookie stamps that leave a nice design. You dip them in sugar and then stamp the cookie before baking.

Grainlady, I really like the Kansas Wheat Commission link that you included in your post. I have a little booklet from them from years ago on baking bread and those recipes are absolutely THE BEST! Having been born in Kansas, I guess maybe I'm a little prejudiced, but to my mind you can't beat supper at a Kansas farm house.