I kept seeing festive little pinwheel cookies on Pinterest but the recipes seemed so complicated. I’m not into that this time of year. I need festive. I need quick. I need simple. I need delicious. I think I achieved it all. I added peppermint extract into this recipe to jazz things up a bit but feel free to leave that out and have a simple sugar cookie instead.
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1 package Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix
1 egg
1 stick butter, softened
1 teaspoon peppermint extract (optional)
red food coloring
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
In a mixing bowl, combine cookie mix, egg and butter with a spoon until dough forms. Divide dough in two and place second half in a separate bowl. In bowl one, stir in peppermint extract and food coloring. Stir until all the food coloring is evenly distributed and dough is red.
Now, take a piece of wax paper and place red dough on top. Take a second piece of wax paper and place on top of dough (so your dough is between two pieces of wax paper). Using a rolling pin, roll out the red dough into a rectangle (about 12 inches by 8 inches or so…you’ll know when to stop rolling). Now, take a third piece of wax paper and lay that next to your red dough, place the white dough on top of that and top with a fourth piece of wax paper. Roll this dough out to the same size rectangle as the red dough. Remove the wax paper off the top of each of your dough. Pick up the white dough and invert it on top of the red dough. (The wax paper will now be on top) Remove the wax paper from the top. Gently press the white dough into the red dough so that they’re sticking together.
Starting from the bottom, roll the dough upwards into a long cylinder. Place this dough in the fridge to harden at least 2 hours. After 2 hours, remove dough from fridge and slice the cylinder into 1/2 inch pieces. Place cookies on greased baking sheet and bake 8-9 minutes. Remove and cool on wire racks.
Ok…so the directions sound complicated but they’re really not. I just tried to be really thorough :). Go crazy with this pinwheel method. Dye your cookies crazy colors, add in a variety of extracts…go nuts for pinwheel cookies!
