Introducing our Christmas Pinwheel Cookies – a delightful swirl of festive flavors and colors that will add a touch of holiday magic to your table. Crafted from sugar cookie dough with a vibrant layer of festive red, these cookies are as visually appealing as they are delicious. These eye-catching treats come together in just about 30 minutes, making them the perfect addition to your quick and festive holiday baking repertoire.
These Christmas pinwheel cookies are so festive and fun. They are made from a standard sugar cookie dough (like these chocolate chip sugar cookies), so they have that traditional sugar cookie flavor everyone is sure to love.
Decorated christmas cookies similar to these are these Cut-out Snowflake Sugar Cookies or these Christmas Butter Cookies.
🍪 Why To Try This Recipe
Festive and Bright - these cookies are full of fun, festive and bright colors making them a great dessert centerpiece.
Traditional flavor - they have a traditional sugar cookie flavor that everyone is sure to love.
Easy to customize - you can change the colors, decorations, sprinkles and more to make these exactly what you want.
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🥄Equipment
- Mixing Bowl
- Hand or Stand Mixer
- Large spoon or Spatula
- Cookie sheet
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoon
- Rolling Pin
📋Ingredients
- Butter - softened
- Granulated Sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla Extract
- Flour
- Baking Powder
- Holiday Sprinkles
- Red Food Coloring - gel works best for bright colors
- Salt
See recipe card for quantities.
📖Substitutions & Variations
Change the look and flavor of these cookies up by trying one of these ingredient substitutions or variations.
- Change colors - you can change up the colors in these pinwheels if you want. Instead of red, use green. Or make one red and one green layer.
- Different Sprinkles - use any type of holiday or festive sprinkles you want, or skip them all together.
- Add some flavor - want something a little more than plain sugar cookie flavor? Add in 1 teaspoon of peppermint, almond, orange or lemon extract.
- Speed it up - use store bought sugar cookie dough if you don't want to have to mix your own up.
Like brightly colored cookies? You can also try out these Crushed Oreo Red Velvet Cookies.
⏲️Instructions
Use the following step-by-step directions and process shots to easily bake up a batch of these cookies.
Step one: If necessary, line the cookie sheet with parchment paper or grease it with non-stick cooking spray. Then, preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step Two: Add softened butter and sugar to mixing bowl. Mix on medium high speed for 2 - 3 minutes or until light and fluffy.
Step Three: Add the eggs and vanilla to the mixing bowl and mix on medium speed for a 1 - 2 minutes or until they are well combined.
Step four: Turn the mixer on medium low speed and slowly add in the flour, baking soda and salt. Continue mixing until completely combined.
Step five: Divide the dough into two equal halves. Then, add the red food coloring to one half and mix it in until well combined.
Step six: Flour the counter and roll the plain dough out so that it is about ½ - ⅝ of an inch thick. Then repeat for the red dough.
Step seven: Lay the red dough on top of the plain dough and roll again lightly to press them together. Then, roll the dough lengthwise into a log.
Step eight: Put your sprinkles out on a baking sheet or parchment paper and gently roll your log on dough into them, pressing lightly so they stick to the outside.
Step nine: Using a knife, cut the log into ½ inch thick slices. Place them a few inches apart on the cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes.
Hint: make sure to let cookies completely cool on the baking sheet before removing them. They will continue to firm up and set as they cool.
⭐Recipe Tips for Success
- Divide Dough Evenly - you can use a kitchen scale if needed. But make the dough as evenly divided as possible.
- Even Sliced Cookies - ensure the cookies bake at the same rate make sure to slice cookies all about the same thickness.
- Consistent Thickness - when rolling out each half of the dough make sure they are a consistent thickness throughout so that they roll and bake evenly.
- Don't overwork the dough - to make sure you have soft sugar cookies, make sure that you don't overwork the dough especially when mixing and rolling it out.
Storage
These cookies can be kept for 5 days at room temperature in an airtight container, or can be frozen up to a year.
You can wrap the dough in cling wrap and store in the fridge for 2 - 3 days or freeze in an airtight container for 3 months.
Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
Equipment
- Rolling Pin
- Mixing bowl
- Hand or Stand Mixer
- measuring cups
- Measuring Spoons
- cookie sheet
- Spoon or Spatula
- Knife
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Butter softened
- 1 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
- 3 Cups Flour
- .5 teaspoon Salt
- Red Food Coloring
Instructions
- Grease your cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray or butter, or line it with parchment paper.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Add 1 cup of softened butter and 1 cup of Granulated sugar into the mixing bowl. Mix on medium high speed for 2 - 3 minutes until well combined, light and fluffy.
- Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla and 1 egg into the mixing bowl. Mix on medium speed for 1 - 2 minutes or until completely combined.
- Turn the mixer on low and slowly add in 3 cups of flour, 1 teaspoon of baking soda and .5 teaspoon of salt into the mixing bowl. Scrape the sides down as needed and continue mixing until all the ingredients are well combined.
- Diving the dough into two equal halves.
- Add red food coloring to one half of dough and mix until color is well dispersed.
- Lightly flour the counter and roll the plain dough out until it is ½ - ⅝ of an inch thick. Then repeat for the red dough.
- Lay the red dough on top of the plain dough and gently roll them again so they are pressed together.
- Carefully roll the dough lengthwise into a log. Cut off the edge if needed so that it is a straight end.
- Add holiday sprinkles to parchment paper or baking sheet and then gently roll the log of dough into the sprinkles so they stick to the dough.
- Using a knife, cut .5 inch thick slices of dough and place them a few inches apart on the baking sheet.
- Place them into the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
Notes
- Add holiday flavor - you can add 1 teaspoon of peppermint or almond extract to the dough with the eggs if you want additional holiday flavor.
- More color - you can use green food color instead of red or add it to the plain dough for even more colorful cookies.
- Storage - store in an airtight container at room temperature for 5 days, or freeze for up to a year.
- Consistent size and thickness - make sure cookies are even and bake evenly by dividing the dough into even halves (you can use a scale if needed), rolling them out and cutting them at even thickness.
- Don't overwork dough - when mixing and rolling cookies, do just as much as needed and not more so that the dough doesn't get overworked and tough.
Nutrition information provided is just an estimate and may vary based on specific ingredients used.
