These soft, yummy Christmas Pinwheel Cookies are a fun, festive holiday cookie recipe. With a swirl of red and green sugar cookies, they are light, chewy and full of holiday cheer!

Contents hide

1 Why You Will Love These Holiday Cookies

2 Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

3 Notes, Tips and Variations

4 Storage, Leftovers and Freezing

5 Tools To Help With This Recipe

6 ‘Tis The Season For Christmas Treats

7 Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

7.1 Ingredients 1x2x3x

7.2 Instructions

7.3 Nutrition

Why You Will Love These Holiday Cookies

EASY – Don’t you love recipes that look very impressive but are actually very simple to make? Using just an easy sugar cookie recipe, you can transform this recipe into an eye catching holiday dessert!
PERFECT FOR COOKIE EXCHANGES AND HOLIDAY PARTIES – Bring these pinwheel cookies to your next holiday cookie exchange! With a subtle, light vanilla flavor, they go great with any other dessert.
THEY MAKE GREAT GIFTS – Put them in a festive box or gift bag and give them to friends, family and neighbors!

Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

For step-by-step instructions, check out the printable recipe card below. But here is what you’ll need to get started.

BUTTER – Unsalted Butter. Let it soften to room temperature.
SUGAR – White, granulated sugar.
EGGS – Also let your eggs sit at room temperature before adding them to this recipe.
VANILLA EXTRACT – We always recommend using a quality vanilla extract for baking. For a little different taste, you can also add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract or peppermint extract.
FLOUR – All-Purpose Flour. Plus a little extra to work with the dough.
BAKING POWDER – A leavening agent that helps make these cookies soft and chewy!
SALT – It’s important to add a little salt in your baking recipes to balance out the sweet ingredients.
FOOD COLORING – Red Food Coloring and Green Food Coloring. We recommend using gel food coloring because it’s easier to work with.

Notes, Tips and Variations

After chilling the dough but before you bake it, roll it in holiday colored sprinkles or nonpareils. This will give the outside of the cookies more Christmas flair!
You don’t have to use gel food coloring, but it is much easier to work with than normal food coloring.
After you wrap the rectangle layers of sugar cookie dough in plastic wrap, it really is important to let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour. That will really help you be able to cut them into cookies. Also, make sure you use a sharp knife.
You can make different colored pinwheels for different holidays! Orange and black for Halloween, Green and White for St. Patrick’s Day, etc….
These make great gifts! Get some festive bags and wrap them up to give to neighbors, friends and family.

Storage, Leftovers and Freezing

Store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature. They should be good for about 5 days.

You can freeze these cookies after you bake them. Just let them cool to room temperature, separate with parchment paper and put in a freezer bag or freezer safe container.

You can freeze the dough before baking. After you wrap the log of dough in plastic wrap, you can additionally warp it in aluminum foil and keep it in your freezer for up to 4 months. Just allow to thaw overnight in your refrigerator before cutting into cookies.

Tools To Help With This Recipe

‘Tis The Season For Christmas Treats

LOOKING FOR MORE CHRISTMAS TREATS OR CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES? CHECK OUT:

I hope you enjoy this Christmas Pinwheel Cookies Recipe and have the happiest of Holidays!

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Christmas Pinwheel Cookies

Course Dessert

Servings Cookies

These soft, yummy Christmas Pinwheel Cookies are a fun, festive recipe that is easy to make during the holiday season!

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Ingredients

2 sticks softened unsalted butter about ½ cup
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
4 cups all-purpose flour + extra for rolling
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
½ tsp red gel food coloring
¼ tsp green gel food coloring

Instructions

In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together butter and granulated sugar.
Once butter and sugar are well combined, add eggs and vanilla and mix some more.
Next, add flour, baking powder and salt. Mix until cookie dough forms.
Divide the cookie dough into two equal halves. Color one half with red gel food coloring and the other with green gel food coloring. Knead each dough half until they’re both completely tinted.
Sprinkle a working surface with flour. As well, add flour onto a rolling pin.
Begin by rolling out the green cookie dough into a rectangular shape, until it’s slightly larger than 6 in x 9 in. Set aside.
Do the same for the red cookie dough and press it on top of the green cookie dough.
With a paring knife, trim the cookie dough so that it’s exactly a rectangular shape, 6 in x 9 in.
Rolling lengthwise (so from the thinner end), roll the layered cookie dough into a log.
Wrap it in plastic and refrigerate for one hour.
Remove the cookie log from the fridge once time is up. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Cut out 12 cookie slices from the log, about ½ an inch thick. Line them up on the lined baking sheet.
Bake for 9 to 11 minutes. Serve and enjoy!