These pinwheel sugar cookies come in the most fun holiday colors for a cheerful Christmas cookie for your cookie box this year. The sugar cookie dough is easy to make and only needs to chill for a short amount of time.
1teaspoonalmond extractOR peppermint extract, if you prefer
3cupsall-purpose flour
1teaspoonbaking powder
½teaspoonsalt
1teaspoonred food coloringor less if you have a more concentrated food coloring (I used 1 teaspoon gel)
¼cupChristmas Nonpareillesround sprinkles
Instructions
Make Cookie Dough:
Cream wet ingredients: Place butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy. Add egg and both extracts and beat until combined.
Add dry ingredients: In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt well. Add to butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined into a cookie dough.
Color dough: Tip out half of the cookie dough mix on your work surface and knead a few times until smooth. Set aside. Add the red food coloring to the remaining half of cookie dough in your mixing bowl and mix with your hand mixer on low speed until fully incorporated. Add more coloring as needed (I used about one teaspoon gel).
Shape Cookies:
Roll out and layer: Place plain dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll out to a rectangle of about 8x15 inches. Repeat process with red dough. Peel top layer of wax paper off both doughs, then invert red dough on top of the plain dough. Gently roll over both doughs with the rolling pin a few times (make it no larger than 9x16 inches) to make sure both doughs stick together. Remove top layer of way paper.
Roll and slice: Trim short sides to make them even, then roll up into a log starting at one of the short sides. Place nonpareilles in a shallow baking dish (make sure your dough log fits) and roll the log in the sprinkles. Using a piece of unscented dental floss or sewing string, carefully slice into ¼ inch thick slices (see notes for step photos).
Chill: Place sliced cookies on lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Refrigerate for 15 - 30 minutes, or until firm and cold.
Bake:
Heat oven to 350°F. Bake cookies in batches for 10 minutes (one tray at a time, keep the others refrigerated) or until just starting to turn golden on the bottom (do not overbake). Cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Ingredient notes
Butter: Real butter works best in this recipe. If you have to use margarine for any reason at all, please use stick margarine and NOT a spreadable margarine.
Red food coloring: I use gel coloring, because I find it works best in cookie dough. If you use a different coloring, please refer to the instructions on the packaging to add it correctly.
Peppermint or almond extract: I know many people like using peppermint extract in these, because they look like peppermint candies. But the old-fashioned recipes often call for almond extract, so feel free to use either. I like the cookies both ways, maybe even a little better with almond.
Recipe tips
Add enough food coloring to the dough to make it a bright red, the color will get lost a little during baking. Also, make sure to fully incorporate the coloring into the dough for best results.
Do not skip chilling the cookie dough before rolling it out, it will be impossible to work with.
Do not skip chilling the shaped cookies either, they will not keep their shapes well in the oven without chilling.
Make sure you roll the log up firmly, else the two colors will separate from each other in the oven.
You can slice the cookies with a sharp knife if you don’t want to mess with the dental floss, but they do come out best if you slice them with the floss.
Freezer instructions
I actually don’t recommend freezing this dough to make the pinwheel cookies– it's a lot harder to work into this shape after freezing.To freeze the baked cookies: Place the cooled cookies in freezer-friendly boxes in layers (separate layers with wax paper), label with the name and use-by date (freeze for up to 3 months) before sticking in the freezer.To defrost, remove from the freezer container and place on a wire rack on the counter for a few hours, until defrosted. Your sprinkles may discolor a little sure to the moisture from defrosting, the wire rack helps combating it a little.
Storage tips
The cookies keep well in closed cookie tins at room temperature for 1-2 weeks though.