I love these whimsical Christmas Pinwheel Cookies! Their vivid swirls of red, green, and white dough echo the cheery colors of the holiday season. With their buttery sugar cookie flavor and visually stunning appearance, these Christmas cookies are a festive addition to any holiday gathering.
Why We Love These Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
- Eye-Catching Design: The vibrant red, green, and white swirls create a festive visual appeal, making these pinwheel cookies a standout addition to any holiday table or cookie exchange.
- Worth the Effort: These swirled cookies demand more effort, but the result is undeniably worth it.
- Versatile: The colors of red and green, as well as the style of sprinkles, can be easily exchanged for different variations, making these cookies suitable for any occasion year-round.
Key Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour: Serves as the main structure of the cookie dough, providing the necessary gluten for texture and shape.
- Salt: Enhances the overall flavor by balancing sweetness and intensifying the taste of other ingredients.
- Unsalted Butter (Softened): Contributes to the cookie dough’s texture, tenderness, and richness. Softened butter helps in creaming with sugar to create a smooth base.
- Sugar: Provides sweetness and contributes to the texture and color of the dough. Creamed with butter, it helps aerate the mixture for a lighter texture.
- Egg: Acts as a binding agent, providing structure and moisture to the dough while aiding in leavening and creating a tender cookie.
- Light Corn Syrup: Adds moisture to the dough, enhancing its chewiness and assisting in its flexibility for rolling.
- Vanilla Extract: Infuses the dough with a rich, aromatic flavor that complements the sweetness and adds depth to the overall taste of the cookies.
- Red and Green Food Coloring Gel: Essential for achieving the vibrant holiday colors in the dough, creating the iconic red, green, and white swirls.
- Decorative Sprinkles: These add a festive touch, providing color, texture, and additional sweetness to the finished cookies, making them visually appealing and perfect for holiday celebrations.
Recommended Kitchen Tools
How to Make Pinwheel Christmas Cookies
Step 1: In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 2: Stir in the egg, then corn syrup and vanilla extract. Gradually add in flour mixture until just combined.
Step 3: Divide dough into three even sections (just over 10 ounces each). Mix red food coloring into one section to the desired hue, add green food coloring into another section to the desired hue, and leave the third one white. Pat into disks; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
Step 4: One color at a time, roll dough between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper into rectangles approximately 1/4-inch thick.
Step 5: Stack the three rectangles of dough with white in the middle. Slice the stacked rectangles in half. This is so we can make some of the pinwheel Christmas cookies with red on the outside and some with green on the outside.
Step 6: Roll one half from one end to the other to form a log; set aside. Carefully flip the other section of dough upside down so that the opposite color is on top. Then, roll into a log. Trim the uneven ends off. Don’t worry if the logs look crazy or not perfectly even; trust me, the cookies will be great!
Step 7: Spread Christmas sprinkles onto a rimmed baking sheet and gently roll each log over the sprinkles to coat. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Step 8: Cut each log into even slices up to 1/2-inch thick. (If your ends yield slightly smaller cookies, like mine, that’s fine! I try to bake mostly same-sized cookies on a single tray, then bake the smaller ones separately at the end.
Step 9: Lay on a parchment paper-lined cookie tray and bake for about 12-15 minutes until the edges turn golden brown and the cookies are set. Leave on a cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Storage
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days or freeze for up to a month.
Helpful Tips
- Weigh it Out: To help ensure your pinwheel swirls are as even as possible, use a kitchen scale to divide the dough into three equal sections.
- Chill the Dough: After mixing and before rolling, chill the dough for at least an hour. This helps the dough firm up, making it easier to handle and preventing excessive spreading when baked.
- Use Parchment Paper: Roll the dough between sheets of parchment paper to prevent sticking and smooth the rolling process.
- Even Thickness: Aim for an even thickness while rolling out the dough to ensure consistent swirls throughout the cookies. I use this rolling pin with thickness disks.
- Tight Rolling: Roll the dough into a log tightly to create well-defined swirls in the cookies. (I always have a few air gaps, so don’t stress!)
- Chill Before Slicing: After rolling the dough log, chill it again before slicing. This helps maintain the shape of the cookies and prevents them from unraveling while cutting.
- Sharp Knife: Use a sharp knife for slicing the dough to ensure clean, precise cuts without squishing the dough.
- Adjust Food Coloring Amount: Start with a small amount of food coloring gel and gradually increase until you achieve the desired color intensity. Remember, you can always add more but can’t remove excess coloring.
- Same-size: Bake same-size cookies together on a single sheet. Sometimes, the end will yield smaller cookies, so if they’re much smaller, you may want to bake those separately so they don’t overbake. You could discard the small ones, but I don’t like to waste anything, so I bake them separately.
- Experiment with Variations: Feel free to experiment with different colors and sprinkle styles to suit various occasions or themes beyond the holiday season.
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
Ingredients
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- ⅔ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- red and green food coloring gel
- 1 cup decorative sprinkles
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt; set aside. In large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Stir in the egg, then corn syrup and vanilla extract. Gradually add in flour mixture until just combined.
- Divide dough into three even sections (just over 10 ounces each). Add red food coloring to one section to desired hue, add green food coloring to another section to desired hue and leave the third one white. Pat into disks; wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes to an hour.
- One color at a time, roll dough between two sheets of parchment paper or waxed paper into rectangles, approximately ¼-inch thick.
- Stack the three rectangles of dough with white in the middle. Slice the stacked rectangles in half. This is so that we can make some of the pinwheel Christmas cookies with red on the outside and some with green on the outside.
- Roll one cut section from one end to the other to form a log; set aside. Carefully flip the other section of dough upside down so that the opposite color is on top. Then roll into a log. Trim the uneven ends off. Don't worry if the logs look crazy or not perfectly even; trust me, the cookies will be great!
- Spread Christmas sprinkles onto a rimmed baking sheet and gently roll each log over the sprinkles to coat. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 30 minutes.
- Cut each log into even slices up to ½-inch thick. (If your ends yield slightly smaller cookies, like mine, that's totally fine! I just try to bake mostly same-sized cookies together on a single tray, then bake the smaller ones separately at the end.
- Lay on a parchment paper-lined cookie tray and bake for about 12-15 minutes until edges start to turn golden brown and cookies are set. Leave on cookie sheet for a couple of minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
- Storage: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to three days or freeze for up to a month.
Notes
- Weigh it Out: To help ensure your pinwheel swirls are as even as possible, use a kitchen scale to divide the dough into three equal sections.
- Chill the Dough: After mixing and before rolling, chill the dough for at least an hour. This helps the dough firm up, making it easier to handle and preventing excessive spreading when baked.
- Use Parchment Paper: Roll the dough between sheets of parchment paper to prevent sticking and make the rolling process smoother.
- Even Thickness: Aim for an even thickness while rolling out the dough to ensure consistent swirls throughout the cookies.
- Tight Rolling: When forming the dough into a log, roll it tightly to create well-defined swirls in the cookies. (I always have a few air gaps, so don’t stress about it!)
- Chill Before Slicing: After rolling the dough log, chill it again before slicing. This helps maintain the shape of the cookies and prevents them from unraveling while cutting.
- Sharp Knife: Use a sharp knife for slicing the dough to ensure clean, precise cuts without squishing the dough.
- Adjust Food Coloring Amount: Start with a small amount of food coloring gel and gradually increase until you achieve the desired color intensity. Remember, you can always add more but can’t remove excess coloring.
- Same-size: Bake same-size cookies together on a single sheet. Sometimes the end will yield smaller cookies, so if they’re much smaller, you may want to bake those separately so they don’t overbake. You could discard the small ones, but I don’t like to waste anything, so I just bake them separately.
- Experiment with Variations: Feel free to experiment with different colors and sprinkle styles to suit various occasions or themes beyond the holiday season.
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