Description
These festive Christmas Pinwheel Cookies feature vibrant red, green, and white swirled dough layered with holiday sprinkles. The buttery, tender cookies are chilled, sliced, and baked to a delicate golden perfection, making them a perfect sweet treat for the holiday season.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour (360 g)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened to room temperature (225 g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar (100 g)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 g)
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Coloring and Toppings
- ½ teaspoon red food coloring
- ½ teaspoon green food coloring
- ½ cup Holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set this mixture aside for later use.
- Cream Butter and Sugars: In a separate bowl, cream together the softened butter, light brown sugar, and granulated sugar until the mixture is smooth and fluffy, approximately 2 minutes.
- Add Egg and Vanilla: Add the egg and pure vanilla extract to the creamed butter mixture and mix thoroughly until well combined.
- Combine Flour Mixture: Gradually add the dry flour mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until there are no visible streaks of flour.
- Divide and Color Dough: Divide the dough evenly into three portions. Add red food coloring to one portion, green food coloring to another, and leave the last portion uncolored (white). Mix each portion until the color is uniform.
- Roll Out Dough Rectangles: On a lightly floured surface, roll each color of dough into a 12 by 8 inch (30 by 20 cm) rectangle.
- Layer the Dough: Place the green dough rectangle first, then the white dough on top of it, and finally the red dough on top to create a layered stack.
- Roll Dough Log: Starting at the long edge, tightly roll the layered dough into a log. The log may lengthen slightly as you roll it.
- Add Sprinkles and Chill: Roll the log in the holiday sprinkles so they adhere to the outer surface. Wrap the log tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours to chill thoroughly.
- Preheat Oven and Prepare Baking Sheets: Preheat your oven to 350°F (180°C) or 160°C if using a fan oven. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
- Slice and Bake Cookies: Cut the chilled dough log into ¼ inch thick slices. Place the slices cut-side down on the prepared baking sheets. Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes or until the cookies are lightly puffed and golden around the edges.
- Cool Cookies: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- Rotate the baking sheets halfway through cooking to ensure even baking.
- This recipe produces approximately 36 cookies depending on the thickness of each slice.
- Keeping the dough chilled is essential to maintain firm layers and clear color separation in the pinwheels.
- Leftover trimmings of dough can be baked separately as pretty swirled cookies.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 150 kcal
- Sugar: 10 g
- Sodium: 70 mg
- Fat: 8 g
- Saturated Fat: 5 g
- Unsaturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 19 g
- Fiber: 1 g
- Protein: 2 g
- Cholesterol: 25 mg
