It’s not the Christmas season if you haven’t had a pinwheel cookie. This Christmas Pinwheel Cookies recipe is the star of the show this holiday season. These cookies are festive and will make everyone’s holidays that much brighter!
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Budget-friendly ingredients to help you keep your food costs low.
- These Dr. Suess Sugar Cookies are perfect for your holiday party or gathering.
- Red and green swirled layers are so festive and make them perfect for the holidays!
- This cookie recipe is a must-try this season, I promise you won’t regret it!
Ingredients
- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- kosher salt
- white sugar
- unsalted butter
- eggs
- vanilla extract
- red food coloring
- green food coloring
- holiday sprinkles
See the recipe card below for quantities.
Instructions
Add butter and sugar to a large bowl.
With an electric mixer cream the two together for five minutes.
Add the eggs and vanilla extract to the bowl.
Beat to combine.
In a second bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
Add the butter mixture in with the dry ingredients. Mix well.
Divide the cookie dough in half.
Put one-half of the dough in a separate bowl.
Add several drops of red food coloring to one bowl.
Use your hands to blend the color throughout the dough.
Add several drops of green food coloring to the second bowl.
With your hands work to blend the green food coloring throughout this bowl of cookie dough.
Cut four sheets of parchment paper about 13 in x 11 in.
Lay one side of parchment paper on the counter.
Put the red colored ball of cookie dough on the center of the parchment paper. Cover with another piece of parchment paper.
Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 11 in x 9 in about ¼ inches thick. Transfer the parchment paper-covered cookie dough onto a cookie sheet. Repeat this process for the green cookie dough.
Transfer each cookie sheet of cookie dough to the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes.
After the dough chills
Remove the top layer of parchment paper from the cookie dough. Lightly sprinkle each top layer with water.
Place one layer on top of the other layer.
Gently press the two layers together.
Cut the layers into straight edges on all four sides.
Remove the top sheet of parchment paper.
With the bottom layer of parchment paper begin to roll it up.
Use the parchment paper to pull the dough tight.
If the dough tears just squeeze the dough together.
Pour the sprinkles onto a platter.
Roll the cookie log onto the sprinkles.
Use your hands to press the sprinkles into the log.
Move the log into the refrigerator, leaving it to chill there for at least 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Slice the log into ¼ inch slices.
Place the slices on the parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
Bake at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
Allow cooling slightly on the cookie sheets.
Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Substitutions
If you don’t have everything on hand to make these Red and Green Cookies Pinwheel, use some of these substitutions!
- Change the colors of the dough – if you wanted to, you could change the colors of the dough to make it whatever colors you’d like.
- Leave out the sprinkles – if you cannot use the sprinkles with the cookies, leave them out!
- Eggs – what if you can’t use regular eggs? Feel free to use Duck eggs or even quail eggs.
You might find that these substitutions work quite well for your next cookie bake.
Variations
Do you want to change up this recipe and make it your own? You can use the recipe as a base and change things as you’d like. Here are a few ideas!
- Add peppermint extract – bring a delicious flavor to these cookies by adding peppermint .
- Add lemon extract of flavoring – you could make these lemon flavored cookies by adding a little lemon extract or flavoring.
- Kid friendly – let the kids decorate these pinwheel cookies!
Check out these Snowflake Cookies that you can make this Christmas season.
Equipment
- large mixing bowls
- mixer
- parchment paper
- cookie sheet
- large plate or platter
- knife
- cooling rack
Storage
You can store these pinwheel cookies on the counter. Make sure you place them in an airtight container first. The cookies will last up to one week!
Feel free to freeze the dough or the cookies! Both freeze really well. You can store the dough and the baked cookies in the freezer for up to three months.
Tips
- Make these cookies ahead of time and just bake when you are ready to enjoy them.
- Cookie dough can be frozen in logs and then sliced and baked.
- Sprinkling the layers with water while you are rolling them will help prevent the layers from “mixing” together and keep your colors separate.
- Using food coloring gel will help give the best and brightest colors.
- These are slice and bake cookies. You make the dough, roll it, cut it, and then you place them on the pan for baking. These not only look festive, but they taste amazing!
FAQ
Do you have questions about this recipe? Here are the answers to the most commonly asked questions.
If I were to try and explain what these cookies taste like, they taste like a very light and buttery cookie. The taste might surprise you since the colors are so bright!
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies and Peanut Butter Blossoms come in very close to being the most popular cookie.
One of the most important rules is to make sure there are enough cookies for the cookie exchange. These pinwheel cookies are VERY popular for cookie exchanges.
More Christmas Recipes
Do you enjoy Christmas recipes? Try these delicious recipes:
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies Recipes
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Christmas Pinwheel Sugar Cookie Recipe
Equipment
- large mixing bowls
- mixer
- Parchment Paper
- Cookie Sheet
- large plate or platter
- knife
- cooling rack
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1 Cup white sugar
- 1 cup unsalted butter
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Red and green food coloring
- Holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Add butter and sugar to a large bowl.
- With an electric mixer cream the two together for five minutes.
- Add the eggs and vanilla extract in the bowl.
- Beat to combine.
- In a second bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Add the butter mixture in with the dry ingredients. Mix well.
- Divide the cookie dough in half.
- Put one half of the dough in a separate bowl.
- Add several drops of red food coloring to one bowl.
- Use your hands to blend the color throughout the dough.
- Add several drops of green food coloring to the second bowl.
- With your hands work to blend the green food coloring throughout this bowl of cookie dough.
- Cut four sheets of parchment paper about 13 in x 11 in.
- Lay one side of parchment paper on the counter.
- Put the red colored ball of cookie dough on the center of the parchment paper. Cover with another piece of parchment paper.
- Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out to 11 in x 9 in about ¼ inches thick. Transfer the parchment paper covered cookie dough onto a cookie sheet. Repeat this process for the green cookie dough.
- Transfer each cookie sheet of cookie dough to the refrigerator for at least 10 minutes. Remove the top layer of parchment paper from the cookie dough. Lightly sprinkle each top layer with water.
- Place one layer on top of the other layer.
- Gently press the two layers together.
- Cut the layers into straight edges on all four sides.
- Remove the top sheet of parchment paper.
- With the bottom layer of parchment paper begin to roll it up.
- Use the parchment paper to pull the dough tight.
- If the dough tears just squeeze the dough together.
- Pour the sprinkles onto a platter.
- Roll the cookie log onto the sprinkles.
- Use your hands to press the sprinkles into the log.
- Move the log into the refrigerator, leaving it to chill there for at least 15 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
- Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Slice the log into ¼ inch slices.
- Place the slices on the parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
- Bake at 325 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
- Allow to cool slightly on the cookie sheets.
- Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Disclaimer:
Any nutritional data I provide is an approximation and actual dietary information can vary based on ingredients and proportion sizes.
Nutrition
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