Holiday Pinwheel Sugar Cookies

Holiday Pinwheel Sugar Cookies

By DoreensRecipes Published: December 23, 2017

• Yield: 30-32 cookies

Uses refrigerated sugar cookie dough and gel food coloring. The gel food coloring did give the cookies a bright color.

Ingredients

• 2 1 lb packages refrigerated sugar cookie dough softened
• 1/2 teaspoon red gel food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon green gel food coloring
• 1/2 teaspoon blue gel food coloring (I made blue and yellow ones)
• 1/2 teaspoon yellow gel food coloring

Instructions

1. Divide the cookie dough into 3 equal portions. (Or 6 if doing two sets of colors like I did.)
   
2. Shape one of the three sets into a square log. Wrap in plastic and return to the refrigerator.
   
3. Beat 1 portion with the red coloring gel with hand mixer. (This sent pieces of dough flying around the kitchen. I used a smaller bowl because my pieces were smaller since I divided them by 6. That was a mistake. It also didn't mix well so I alternated with hand mixing and the mixer. :/) (Still finding tiny chunks of colored dough in the kitchen one day later.)
   
4. Once the color is smooth throughout the dough, shape it into a log the same size and shape as the first one. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate.
   
5. Repeat steps for other colors. Refrigerate all the logs for 1 hour. (Because I didn't thoroughly read the recipe ahead of time, this delayed gratification a bit. I took care of chores in the intervening hour including an attempt to clean up the bits of dough all over the kitchen.)
   
6. Spoon red, green, blue and/or yellow coarse decorating sugar in a thin even layer onto a flat plate or baking sheet.
   
7. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out each portion of dough into an 11-by-7 rectangle. (This sounds simple but it was not, partly because I divided my dough up by 6 portions instead of 3. Partly because rolling dough is a balance between "lightly floured" and drying out the dough so it doesn't roll without falling apart.)
   
8. Stack the rectangles on top of one another, starting with the untinted dough. Gently roll to form approximately a 13-by-10 inch rectangle. (Oops; I didn't read this instruction correctly either, but still got nice looking cookies. New Year's resolution: read recipes carefully for full comprehension.)
   
9. Trim the side of the rectangle to create a "perfect" rectangle. (This is cookie dough, there is no perfect rectangle.) Starting from a long side, roll up the the stack tightly to create a log.
   
10. Roll the log in color sugar of your choice. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to overnight, or until firm. (This was too much delayed gratification; I did other chores for 1.5 to 2 hours, then proceeded to the next step. It was fine.)
    
11. Position 2 oven racks, evenly spaced , in the middle of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a sharp knife, cut log into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Arrange slices 1 inch apart on parchment-lined making sheets. (If you run out of room, keep dough log refrigerated.) Bake for 12-16 minutes , until a little puffed and set to the touch. (Timing depends on thickness. Mine were done in 12 minutes.)
    
12. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to wire racks; cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.
    

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