Bake a batch of “Peppermint Candy” Pinwheel Cookies for Christmas gift giving. Cellophane-wrapped red and white pinwheel cookies are dressed up like a large piece of peppermint candy served up sassy in an apothecary jar. Other Gift giving ideas in apothecary jars include Santa Hats and Peppermint Christmas Munch snack mix.
How to Make Peppermint Candy Pinwheel Cookies
“You better watch out, you better not cry…” because these taste better than the ones you can buy. Serve this cookie with a glass of milk and be sure to leave some for Santa. All the little elves (kids) will love to help in the kitchen making these festive treats.
Whether you wrap these cookies as candy or serve them on a platter your friends and family will love em.
Rich buttery sugar cookie dough is divided in half, with one section of dough tinted with red food coloring gel and peppermint extract. (You will want to wear rubber gloves to make sure your hands do not absorb the red coloring.) The remaining dough is rolled into a 12 x 8-inch rectangle on a piece of floured plastic wrap while the red dough is rolled similar and placed over the top of the neutral base.
Roll the doughs together jelly roll style, wrap with plastic wrap and freeze up to 1 month or several hours to harden. Freezing the dough will help with slicing and actually enrich the buttery dough.
When ready to bake, heat your oven to 350 and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove from freezer and cut ends off dough log to reveal swirl. You can bake these pieces as a snack or discard. Cut dough into 1/4-inch thick pieces and place on baking sheets. Bake for 7 minutes until lightly browned. Remove cookies and allow them to cool on baking sheets 5 minutes before removing. When cool, wrap the cookies or serve as desired. The cookies will look just like a piece of candy and will taste delicious.
Get the Recipe:
Print“Peppermint Candy” Pinwheel Cookies
Peppermint flavored red and white sugar cookie dough is rolled together to form a jelly roll then sliced into 1/4 inch slices. Baked to perfection and wrapped in individual cellophane twisted together on both ends forming a wrapped peppermint candy.
- Prep Time: 35 min + 3 hour freeze
- Cook Time: 7 min + 25 min cool
- Total Time: 4 hours
- Yield: 4 dozen cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert- Christmas Cookie
- Method: Baking + Freezing
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 teaspoon clear vanilla
1–3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 drop red food coloring gel – add more if desired
Garnish:
Cellophane wrap and twist ties
Instructions
- Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and extracts, beating until well blended.
- Combine flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to cream mixture, beating on low speed to blend.
- Divide dough in half equally. Roll 1 portion of dough into a 12- 8-inch rectangle on a piece of floured plastic wrap or silpat baking mat.
- Wearing rubber gloves, add red food gel to remaining dough kneading until combined and desired color. Roll this dough into 12×8-inch rectangle.
- Invert un tinted dough using plastic wrap as a guide over red tinted dough. Remove plastic wrap and roll doughs together to form a jelly roll shaped log. Roll into log starting on long side of dough. Wrap and freeze 3 hours or up to one month.
Baking:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside until oven is heated.
- Remove from freezer and plastic wrap, slice log into 1 /4-inch slices. Place on baking sheet 2-inches apart.
- Bake at 350 for 7 minutes. Do not over brown. Allow to cool on baking sheet up to 25 minutes.
Notes
- When ready to bake cookies, cut on both ends of log so you can see the swirl, press the cookie into a round shape if necessary to resemble a peppermint candy.
- Do not over bake the cookies. Cookie will continue bake after removing from oven.
- Allow to cool before removing from baking sheet for best results. They are soft cookies when warm but will harden up a bit after cooling.
- Recipe inspired by Southern Living December 08.
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