These old-fashioned Christmas pinwheel cookies are soft, delicious, and really fun to make! They’re so colorful, Christmassy, and deserve to be in everyone’s Christmas cookie exchange boxes this year!
What are Pinwheel Cookies?
Pinwheel cookies are simple sugar cookies that are rolled using 2 different colors of dough to create cute spiral cookies. It’s a slice and bake cookie just like my slice and bake rum cookies, and are incredibly easy to make!
So if you want to add color to your cookie box this Christmas, bake a batch of these easy pinwheel cookies!
In this recipe, I’ve used red and green food coloring to make them perfect for Christmas, but you can use any color that you like. Another favorite variation of mine is vanilla and chocolate layers.
Why you Will Love This Recipe
- You only need 6 ingredients + food coloring! Very simple cookie dough.
- This recipe can be easily changed to your preference. Add chocolate chips between layers, use sprinkles, different food coloring, add lemon extract, or any flavor you want, the possibilities are endless!
- While the dough needs to be chilled, but you don’t have to chill it for long! So you can totally bake these in about one hour.
Key Ingredients
To make these swirl cookies, you will need:
- Butter – I used salted butter, it’s just a personal preference. You can use unsalted butter if you like, and add a pinch of salt to the recipe.
- Flour and Baking Powder – I used all-purpose flour.
- Sugar – just plain granulated sugar.
- Milk – I use 2% milk.
- Egg + egg whites.
- Pure vanilla extract – can be substituted with other extracts such as almond, or lemon.
- Food coloring – I prefer gel food coloring as it doesn’t change after the cookies are baked, and the vibrant color stays as it is. The brand that I use is Wilton.
How to Make Pinwheel Cookies
- In a large bowl, beat the sugar and softened butter together until creamy. Add in the eggs, milk, and vanilla extract, and continue mixing for about 30-45 seconds.
- Gradually add in the flour, and mix until all of the ingredients are combined into the dough.
- Divide the dough in half and place in separate bowls. Add red color to one bowl and green to the other bowl, mixing the coloring into each portion of the dough.
- Cover and chill the dough in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Once you remove the dough from the freezer, place it on a lightly floured surface and roll out each color of dough into a rectangle shape. (If necessary, place back in the refrigerator or freezer for another 10 minutes. You want to make sure the dough is firm enough to roll).
- Brush the top of both rectangles with some of the egg white mixture before stacking on top of each other. Trim the edges of the rectangle so the edges of the dough are straight.
- Beginning with the longer end of the rectangle, gently roll the dough into a log and pinch the seam. Wrap and place in the freezer for about 10-15 minutes.
- Once the dough is chilled again, slice into small discs about ¼ inch in thickness.
- Place onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, leaving room for them to spread during baking.
- Bake about 13-15 minutes, or until the cookies are set without turning golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack.
Success Tips
- It’s important that you refrigerate the cookie dough as instructed in the recipe card, if you don’t, you will get flat cookies.
- The egg white layer is important to keep the layers from melting into each other, and to get defined layers.
- Make sure that the butter that you’re using is softened to room temperature.
- I use salted butter when I bake cookies. This is a personal preference. If you use unsalted butter, I would suggest adding ¼ teaspoon of salt to the dough when you add in the flour to mix.
- These cookies are so fun and the color choices are endless. You could do them for your favorite sports teams, or for themed parties.
Storing Tips
- Store baked cookies in layers separated by plastic wrap or wax paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the fridge for up to 1 week.
- Don’t leave baked cookies sitting on a countertop uncovered for extended periods of time, they can get stale quite quickly.
- If storing in the fridge, allow them to come to room temperature before serving.
Freezing
- Freeze unbaked cookies on sheet pans for an hour, then transfer them to Ziploc bags for up to 3 months. When ready to bake, remove them from the freezer 30 minutes before baking and leave them on a sheet pan. Bake as instructed in the recipe card.
- To freeze baked cookies, allow them to cool down completely after baking, then freeze them in Ziploc bags or an airtight container for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge overnight before serving.
Other Christmas Cookie Recipes
- Spiced rum slice and bake cookies
- Chocolate peppermint cookies
- Italian wedding cookies
- Soft monster cookies
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
These old-fashioned Christmas pinwheel cookies are soft, delicious, and really fun to make! They're so colorful, Christmassy, and deserve to be in everyone's Christmas cookie exchange boxes this year!
3 inch cookies
These old-fashioned Christmas pinwheel cookies are soft, delicious, and really fun to make! They're so colorful, Christmassy, and deserve to be in everyone's Christmas cookie exchange boxes this year!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (360 g) all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (225 g) unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar
- ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon each red and green food coloring
- ½ cup Holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and stir until no streaks of flour remain.
- Divide the dough into 3 equal portions, add red coloring to one, green to another, and leave the final portion white. Mix until uniformly colored.
- Roll each color of dough on a lightly floured surface into a roughly 12×8 rectangle. Layer the dough with the green, then white, then red.
- Starting for the long end, tightly roll the dough until you have a log. Roll the log in the sprinkles and wrap with plastic wrap. The log will likely lengthen slightly as you roll it. Place into the fridge to chill for at least 3 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) or 160°C if using a fan oven, and line three baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside.
- Slice the cookies into ¼ inch slices, and place cut side down on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until slightly puffed and lightly golden.
- Cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes:
- I normally rotate my cookies halfway through baking so they will cook evenly.
- This recipe makes about 3-4 dozen cookies, and will depend on how tightly you roll them.
- The secret to these cookies is keeping the dough chilled so when you slice into them, the colors stay firm. I had dough from the trimming, and it was a really pretty swirl of mixed colors, so I baked those too.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 91kcal, Carbohydrates: 12g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 3g, Cholesterol: 16mg, Sodium: 37mg, Potassium: 15mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 129IU, Calcium: 6mg, Iron: 1mg
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
© Little Sunny Kitchen
Gloria says
Can I just freeze the whole log and bake them closer to the holiday ?
Lauren says
you don’t give a temperature for baking?
Diana says
It’s 350°F/180°C. Enjoy!
Tina says
So festive and simple. I will be trying these this Christmas, thank you!