Holiday Pinwheel Cookies are so much fun on a cookie tray! Made by rolling together with two colors of dough. Freeze the batter for up to a month for slice-and-bake cookies.
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When I was working on my cookbook Marbled, swirled and layered, I had to make some difficult decisions about which recipes to keep and which to leave out. The cookie chapter was already pretty overloaded and some recipes fell by the wayside.
But today is your lucky day! I’ll revive the recipe and share it with you.
Get the perfect swirl
Though they look difficult to make, the secret to pinwheel cookies really is just patience. The basic process involves dividing the cookie dough and adding color and flavor extracts in half. The dough is then rolled into rectangles and folded. Roll them up into a stick, then simply slice and bake.
I also like to halve each ball of dough again (so make four pieces) so I can make some cookies with the colored spiral on the inside and others with the colored spiral on the outside.
CONTINUE READING:
Freeze the dough for later
After the final rolling, the cookie dough sticks can be frozen (tightly sealed in both plastic wrap and an airtight resealable freezer bag) for up to a month. That means you can have homemade pinwheel cookies pretty much any way you like.
If you feel like it, the frozen dough pieces can even be bundled as a homemade gift for your friends to bake the cookies at home too!
Today I took a classic raspberry flavored red and white batter that’s festive for the holidays. You can customize the recipe by swapping out the food coloring and flavoring extract as you like. Some of my favorites are orange food coloring and extract, green and mint, and yellow and lemon.
The sky’s the limit with these cookies!
Looking for more Christmas cookie ideas? Check out these!
Holiday Pinwheel Cookies
These festive pinwheel cookies take a little effort and patience, but are a fun project to make. Allow sufficient time for the dough to cool, and let the dough rest in the refrigerator overnight between steps (you can even bake the cookies for a few days).
If raspberry extract isn’t available at your grocery store, or you want a different flavor, simply substitute an equal amount of your favorite extract along with an appropriate food coloring.
ingredients
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1 1/4 cup (250G) sugar
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1 cup (225G or 8 ounces) unsalted butterat room temperature
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1 teaspoon vanilla extract
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1/2 teaspoon baking powder
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1/2 teaspoon Salt
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1 big egg
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3 cups (420G) all purpose flour
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1/2 teaspoon liquid red food coloring
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1/2 teaspoon raspberry extract
special equipment
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blender
method
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Beat butter and sugar:
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine the sugar, butter, vanilla, baking powder and salt. Beat the ingredients together until the batter is creamy, light-colored and sticks to the side of the bowl, about 2 minutes on medium speed.
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Add egg:
Scrape down the rim of the bowl and add the egg. Mix until incorporated.
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Add flour:
Add the flour and mix into the batter on low until no streaks of flour remain.
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Divide and color the dough:
Scrape out the dough on a clean surface and divide in half. Set aside half. Place the other half back in the bowl and add the red food coloring and raspberry extract. Mix until incorporated and uniform in color.
Divide each half of the dough in half again – you should have 4 balls of dough, 2 smooth and 2 raspberry. Roughly shape each ball into a square or rectangle and wrap each square tightly in plastic wrap.
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Chill the dough:
for at least 30 minutes or up to a day to allow the dough to set.
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Roll out the dough:
Take out a piece of dough, unwrap it and place it on a piece of wax paper or parchment paper. Place another piece of wax paper or parchment paper on top and roll the dough into a 6 x 12 rectangle. If the dough is too hard to roll out, let it soften for a few minutes until it rolls out easier.
As you roll out the dough, turn it over occasionally. If the parchment paper is crumpled, peel it off the dough and lay it back on (so you don’t get any creases in your dough).
When finished, place the rolled out dough on a baking sheet still sandwiched between sheets. Repeat with the remaining 3 pieces of dough and stack the dough sheets on top of each other on the baking sheet.
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Once all four pieces of dough are rolled out, place the baking sheet with the dough in the freezer for 15 minutes:
The dough should be firm but not frozen through.
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Sandwich the vanilla and raspberry batter together:
Remove one sheet of vanilla dough and one sheet of raspberry dough from the freezer. Peel back the top paper on both.
Carefully invert the raspberry batter onto the vanilla batter so they fold together (vanilla on the bottom, raspberry on top – the colors are reversed in the photos below but they give you the general idea!). Remove the remaining paper from the raspberry dough.
Cut the edges so that the two sheets of dough are next to each other. Gently roll out the dough from the long edge to make a 30cm strand of dough, peeling off the bottom layer of parchment as you go.
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Repeat with the rest of the dough:
Repeat this sandwich and rolling process, but this time place the raspberry layer on the bottom so that the raspberry batter is on the outside when you roll the dough.
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Cool the pieces of dough:
Wrap each piece of dough tightly in the parchment paper or plastic wrap. Place in fridge for 2 hours or overnight. (Or freeze for up to a month.)
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Heat Oven to 350ºF:
and line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
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Cut cookies:
Take the cooled dough out of the fridge. The bottom of the dough will be slightly flat where it rested in the fridge. To smooth this out, gently roll the log against the counter with your hands until the edges are smooth again.
Cut the dough into 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick slices. Place them about an inch apart on the baking sheet.
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Bake for 10 to 12 minutes:
or until the cookies are just beginning to brown around the edges.
Transfer baked cookies to a wire rack to cool. Repeat the process of cutting and baking the rest of the dough. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
| nutritional information (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 88 | calories |
| 4g | Fat |
| 12g | carbohydrates |
| 1g | protein |
