Christmas Cookies

I've been busy this weekend....buckeyes, danish wedding cakes, snickerdoodles, and this year Peppermint Pinwheels. Every year I try to do a new cookie and this one looked good. The Peppermint Pinwheels are probably going to make it to the favorite's list!

What you'll need:

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
Red food coloring
 

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with sugar until creamy. Beat in egg yolk and vanilla. In a smaller bowl stir together flour, baking powder and salt. Blend flour mixture into butter mixture to make a smooth dough. If dough is too dry, add water teaspoon at a time. Divide dough into two equal portions. Set aside one half. 

To the other half add the peppermint extract and enough red food coloring to tint the dough a dark pink. Use gel food coloring, or the Wilton's coloring for best results.

Roll out each color dough to a 16x10 inch rectangle, between sheets of wax paper. 

Remove top sheet of wax paper from the pink dough; place dough on top side down on top of plain dough; peel off paper. Roll up dough tightly, jelly-roll fashion. Wrap in wax paper and chill several hours until very firm. Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Unwrap dough and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices with a sharp knife;

place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 10 minutes or until cookies are firm, but not browned.

Remove from cookie sheets to wire racks; cool completely. These are so tasty! Next time, I'm going to split the dough into thirds, and add a layer of chocolate!!

By the way, the stand mixer died yesterday. Well, it works, but only one beater stays in . The other one won't lock in anymore. If Santa were to make a visit to my house with a new stand mixer, I promise to make the "Nice" list every year for the rest of my life ;)