Valentine Swirl Cookies

Welcome to my 2nd Valentine's Day post! Today I'll show you how to make swirl cookies. The girl's and I had a lot of fun making these although it turned out to be a pretty messy project!

Ingredients

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

1. First whisk together your dry ingredients: flour, salt and baking powder then set aside.

 

2. Next cream together butter and sugar. Add in egg, milk and vanilla, mix until well combined. Slowly stir in flour mixture, make sure mixer is on low.

3. Transfer half the dough to a work surface. Add a few drops of red food coloring to the mixture left in the bowl. Mix until desired color, try not to overmix though.

4. Place a sheet of wax paper down, the dough in the middle and another sheet of wax paper on top of the dough. Roll out into a rectangle. Repeat with colored dough. Place on cookie sheet and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.

 

 

5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and peel the paper off of one side of the colored dough. Lightly flour your work surface and flip the dough over onto it, then peel off the paper from the other side. Brush the top of the colored dough with water using a pastry or basting brush. (Or if your cheap like me any ol' paintbrush will work) Peel the paper off of one side of your white dough. Place it dough side down on top of the colored dough, trying to align the two rectangles of dough as well as possible. Then peel the paper from the other side.

 

 



6. Trim the corners so they match up. Save the scraps you can make funky looking cookies with it. Next, gently start to roll dough up. If there are gaps when you are done, roll the log back in forth a bit to close the gaps. It should end up looking similar to this...

7. Brush the log with water, then roll in sprinkles or non pareils.

 

8. Wrap log in plastic wrap and chill 1 hour in the fridge. You can roll the scraps into a log as well. When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 350. Slice circles of dough and place on cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes or less, don't allow them brown. Cool on wire rack and then enjoy!