Pinwheel Cookies

You can make these pinwheel cookies in festive colours ...

or swirl them in any psychedelic colours that suit your mood!

Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 sticks (1 1/4 cups) unsalted butter (cut in chunks)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp of food coloring of your choice(and/or 1/2 tsp of any desired extra extracts)
1 1/2 cup holiday sprinkles

In a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars with paddle on medium until well blended.

Add butter in, gradually, and continue mixing. Add in vanilla extract. At this point, your dough will form a ball on your paddle.

Remove all your dough and divide into two equal parts. (For the psychedelic ones we reserved a little dough to make a rope of yellow colour in the center) Return one portion back to the mixer and add the food coloring and any extra extracts. I used Wilton gel food coloring in leaf green and vanilla extract for the festive batch. You could coordinate your colors and flavors, for example green food coloring matched with a mint extract or yellow with a lemon extract, etc. Also, if you are using liquid food coloring, you will need to add a bit more flour to keep the dough from becoming too wet. Mix until the color is spread out evenly.

Roll out each portion of your dough, between two sheets a wax paper until it reaches about 11 x 9 inches and is 1/4 inch thick. Slide both onto a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

When firm, remove the top sheets of wax paper from both.

Brush the first layer lightly with water using a pastry brush. Then flip the second dough onto the first so they are stacked atop each other and even. I thought his might be a problem, but chilling the dough made it stiff enough to just pick up, easy peasy! Press the edges lightly with your fingertips to seal them together. Using a small pairing knife, trim the edges of the dough to make straight, even lines. If using a rope of a third colour place it at one long edge.

Be sure your dough is still cold, but flexible. Once it's ready, begin rolling the long side of dough into a swirl, jelly-roll style. Now, don't get nervous if the outer layer of dough tears a bit. It's no problem, just pinch and pat those tears and voila, then just keep rolling.

Pour out sprinkles onto a working surface. Now lift the dough log onto the sprinkles and gently roll to coat.

ow gently lift your dough log onto the sprinkles and roll away. Cover the log completely with your sprinkles.

Wrap the colorfully decorated log in plastic wrap twice. Depending on when you want to bake the cookies, either place the wrapped dough into refrigerator for a couple of hours or you can put it in the freezer and keep it there for up to 2 months. (If freezing, give yourself time for the dough to defrost in the fridge overnight before cutting.)

Slice your dough into 1/4-1/8 inch slices and bake on parchment lined baking sheets. Bake at 350 F for 10-12 minutes until edges are slightly golden. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a rack.

Pretty cool eh?