Festive Pinwheel Cookies

For the Independence Day, I brought that Blueberry Buckle from the previous post, but I felt like a copout.  But it's a holiday!  I wanted something a little more... festive.  So I started searching Pinterest (of course), and I came across this picture:

Well pinwheels are pretty easy!  So I gathered my ingredients and got to work.  These can be altered for whatever colors you want or whatever season.  At Christmas, I've sprinkled 1/2 tsp of cinnamon in the red dough for a bit of a bite.  You can play however you'd like.

**Just be aware that these cookies need to rest in the fridge for roughly 5 hours.  You can make them in advance and just slice and bake when your guests come (or when you're hungry), but they will need at least 5 hours for cooling.

Pinwheel Cookies:  4th of July Version
Cutting the dough

Adapted from here


1 cup of butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1-1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
Smidge of salt
Food coloring of choice (red and blue for these)

  1. Beat butter until creamy.  Add in sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs, then vanilla.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt.  Add it to the butter mixture and beat just until incorporated.  Do not over beat it.
  3. Form the dough into a ball and separate into 3 equal portions.  Shape Portion A (white) into a 5x5 (ish) square, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.  Put Portion B (red) back into the mixing bowl and add food coloring.  Be careful not to mix it too long, just long enough to incorporate the coloring.  
  4. Shape Portion B into a 5x5(ish) square, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate.  Repeat the color adding process with Portion C (blue).  When all 3 portions are the desired color and in the fridge, let them cool in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  5. Take out all three portions and cut them in half.  Rewrap one half of each portion and return to the fridge.  Roll out Portion B (red) between two sheets of wax paper until it is a large rectangle (roughly 1/8 inch thick).  Set to the side.  Do the same with Portion A (white) and layer on top of the red dough.  Don't worry if they don't match exactly (those can be tester cookies!)  Repeat again with Portion C (blue).
  6. Roll the layers tightly into one long log, cover with the wax paper, and refrigerate.  Repeat rolling process with the other half of the dough.  
  7. Refrigerate both logs for 4 hours.  Periodically pull them out to roll them lightly on the counter so they don't get a flat side.
  8. After at least 4 hours, pull one log out.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Slice the log into roughly 1/4 inch thick rounds.  Place on a parchment paper covered baking sheet.  Bake for 9-11 minutes or until very lightly golden.

It makes about 50 cookies, including some small ones from the ends that don't really look like pinwheels.  Those are delicious tester cookies!



Mmmmm sugar cookies!

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