These pinwheel sugar cookies have a lot of steps but I assure you it's more time consuming than difficult. My toddlers and I made these earlier this week and they are always a fun cookie to make. My little ones always love when we turn the dough pretty colours. My daughter choose the colours this time. What I love most about these cookies is you can change up the colours to make them holiday themed.
They start with a basic sugar cookie dough recipe. I prefer to use my stand mixer but you can mix everything by hand as well. Once you have the dough formed you will need to separate the dough into three even sections. You can do this with a scale, but I just eyeball it.
Next add one of the dough balls back into your mixing bowl and add the food colouring for your first colour. Start with 1/2 tsp and add more to get your desired colour.
Once colour is fully mixed in remove the dough from the bowl and place on a piece of plastic wrap. Push the dough down into a rectangle shape, wrap it up, and place in the fridge to chill. Clean the bowl and your mixing tool thoroughly before repeating this step with your remaining two dough balls.
Once dough has chilled its time to roll it out. Take out one piece of the dough and place it in between two layers of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin roll dough into a rectangle about 1/8 inch thick. Repeat this step with the other two dough balls and try to keep the rectangles a similar size. Place dough sheets back in the fridge to chill.
After the dough has chilled for the second time it's time to put everything together. Carefully remove the parchment paper and lay the dough on top of each other. Using a sharp knife trim along the horizontal sides to give the dough a straight line.
Then gently roll the dough into a cookie log. Start at one of the horizontal edges start rolling the dough inwards. You want to roll it pretty tight to make sure it sticks together. Once rolled wrap it in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill. Once chilled unwrap the dough and cut cookies 1/4 inch thick, place on a lined cookie sheet, and bake.
Bake them by yourself or bake them with your kids, either way you'll be sure to enjoy these pinwheel cookies.
Make sure to tag me on Instagram @jessiebakestreats and leave me a review below if you've made these cookies. I'd love to hear from you! For more ideas you can follow me on Pinterest.
Pinwheel Cookies
Ingredients
- 3/4 C unsalted butter room temperature
- 3/4 C white sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 C all purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp Food colouring for each colour
Instructions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer with the paddle attachment beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract. Continue mixing until well combined.
- In a separate medium sized bowl whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Add half of the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, mix, add the remainder of the dry, and continue mixing until everything is combined.
- Remove dough from bowl and divide dough into three equal parts.
- Place one dough piece back into the large mixing bowl and add in your first choice food colouring. Start with 1/2 tsp worth of food colouring and you can add more if needed. Once colour is mixed in remove dough from bowl, clean bowl, and repeat with the other dough pieces.
- Once you have all the dough dyed its time to chill. Place a single dough piece onto a sheet of plastic wrap, flatten into a rectangle, and wrap it up. Repeat with two other dough pieces. Chill in the fridge for at least an hour or until chilled.
- Once chilled remove dough rectangles from the fridge. Remove from plastic wrap and place individual dough pieces in between two layers of parchment paper. Using a rolling pin flatten dough into about an 1/8inch rectangle. Repeat with other dough pieces and try to get the rectangles to be the same size.
- Once rolled place the dough rectangles in the parchment paper back into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.
- After dough has chilled its time to roll all the pieces together. Gently remove the top parchment paper layer from your first dough rectangle. Then remove both all remaining parchment paper from the two other dough rectangles and lay each on top of the other until all three are together. Try to line up the edges as much as possible.
- Using a sharp knife trim along the horizontal edges to make sure they are even (see picture above). Then carefully starting at one of the horizontal edges roll the dough into a log.
- Wrap dough log in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for another hour.
- Once dough has chilled preheat the oven to 350F.
- Remove dough from the fridge and unwrap from the plastic wrap.
- Using a sharp knife cut dough log into 1/4 inch thick slices (discard the ends because they will not have a nice pinwheel design).
- Place cut cookies onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Let cool on the pan for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool fully.
- Enjoy!
Leave a Review