Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies Perfect Holiday Platter Dessert

Preparation:

Prepare a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper or a silpat if you prefer.

Gather dry ingredients: flour through salt

Make sure you've got peppermint extract and red food coloring in the house.

Make the Dough:

Cream butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl until fluffy, about three minutes.

Be sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl with a spatula so you don't have any unbeaten butter clumps.

Add egg yolk, vanilla and peppermint extracts and beat another minute to combine.

Add dry ingredients. Mix until flour is just combined otherwise you'll have a tough cookie.

Divide dough in half.

Leave the half the dough in the mixing bowl. Add red food coloring or whatever color you want to use and beat until there are no more vanilla dough-colored streaks left.

Prepare dough for chilling:

Flatten each dough into a rectangle. Wrap in plastic wrap. Put in fridge for at least two hours. The thickness of the rectangle really doesn't matter at this point. You're just making it easier to roll out after the dough is done chilling.

Bake the Dough:

When you're ready to bake, heat oven to 350 degrees f.

Place a piece of parchment paper on your work surface to make rolling out the dough easier.

Roll each rectangle to about a quarter inch thick.

Place one rectangle of dough on top of the other. Push down firmly.

Slice any uneven edges you might have.

Starting at one edge--either short or long--I recommend a short edge, roll dough into a cylinder shape.

Pour a quarter cup or so of the sanding sugar onto the parchment paper and roll the dough cylinder into the sugar.

If you're having trouble getting the sugar to stick. You can dampen a paper towel with water to moisten the dough with.

Using a sharp knife, slice dough into quarter slices and place on parchment-lined baking sheet.

These cookies do not spread the way drop cookies spread so you should be able to bake many more than a dozen at a time.I used a half-sheet pan and baked at least 24 at a time.

Cool the Cookies:

Bake for 10 minutes at 350.

Let cool for two minutes before moving to a wire rack to finish cooling.