Peppermint Pinwheels

Several people have contacted me asking for the Pinwheel recipe.  I've never personally made it before.  Jordan first tried it out a few years ago and got terribly frustrated.  But, that was during her trial and error years.  She's since perfected the recipe with no problems rolling out the dough.  And the sprinkles on the sides were just added this year.  You can use any type of sugar crystals to roll the dough in.

3/4 C softened butter
3/4 C sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
2 C flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp peppermint extract
1/4 tsp red food coloring

1.  In bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in egg yolk and vanilla.  Combine flour, baking powder, and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.  Divide dough in 1/2; add extract and food coloring to one portion.

2.  Roll out each portion of dough between waxed paper into 16 x 10 rectangle.  Remove wax paper.  Place red dough over plain dough and roll up tightly starting with long side.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnite.  I think this is the point where Jordan rolled the dough in crystals.

3.  Unwrap dough and cut into 1/4 in. slices.  Place 2 inches apart and bake @ 350 for around 14 minutes.

And, to get you in the mood, here are some more yummy cookies from this year.

Cut outs.  Everyone loves them.

Everyone loves biting the heads, arms, and feet off these poor gingerbread.  These are my favorite.

Toffee squares.  Mike really likes these because they are his mom's recipe.  The rest of the family likes them, too.  I think Joy passes on these.

Snowballs.  Mike, Jordan, and I are the ones usually eating these.  They go great with a cup of coffee.  These are the ones that usually hang around until Christmas.  The other cookies get eaten mostly by a young man in this house without self control.  I wake up in the morning to find sugar crystals spilled all in the freezer where the tin stays.  Shame on him.