Description
Delight in these festive Valentine’s Day Swirl Cookies featuring a beautiful colored dough layered with classic vanilla dough. Rolled into a charming swirl and coated with holiday sprinkles, these buttery, tender cookies are perfect for celebrating the season with a sweet, visually stunning treat.
Ingredients
Scale
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra tablespoons if needed
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅔ cup unsifted powdered sugar
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
Wet Ingredients
- 2½ sticks unsalted butter, cut into chunks (about 10 tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon food coloring of your choice
- ½ teaspoon any desired extra extracts (optional)
Decorations
- 1½ cup holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix dry ingredients: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, powdered sugar, and granulated sugar. Mix on medium speed until well blended.
- Add butter and vanilla: Gradually add the chunked butter to the mixer bowl and continue mixing until the mixture comes together into a dough. Then add the vanilla extract and mix to incorporate.
- Divide dough: Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into two equal portions. Return one portion to the mixer bowl.
- Color the dough: Add the food coloring and any extra extracts to the dough in the mixer. Mix until the color is evenly distributed. If the dough becomes too wet, gradually add additional flour, a tablespoon at a time.
- Roll out dough: Roll out each dough portion between two sheets of wax paper until it measures about 11 by 9 inches and is ¼ inch thick.
- Chill dough: Place both rolled dough sheets on a cookie sheet and refrigerate for at least 1 hour to chill and firm up.
- Stack dough layers: Once chilled, remove the top wax paper from both sheets. Lightly brush the surface of the vanilla (uncolored) dough with water. Carefully flip the colored dough sheet onto the vanilla dough so they form a stacked, even layer. Press edges lightly to seal and trim with a knife for straight edges.
- Roll into log: Ensure the dough is cold but pliable. Begin rolling the dough long side into a swirl, jelly-roll style, forming a log.
- Coat with sprinkles and chill again: Pour sprinkles onto a large platter. Gently lift the dough log onto the sprinkles and roll so the sprinkles coat the outside. Wrap the log in plastic wrap and chill for several hours or freeze for up to three months.
- Slice and bake: Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Slice the dough log into ¼ inch thick slices. Arrange slices on parchment-lined baking sheets and bake for 15 to 17 minutes, or until edges start to turn golden brown.
- Cool: Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Notes
- If adding food coloring causes the dough to become too wet and difficult to roll, add extra flour by the tablespoon until the dough is manageable.
- Chilling the dough is crucial for shaping and clean slicing of swirl cookies.
- These cookies can be frozen at the dough log stage for up to three months for convenient later baking.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
- Calories: 110
- Sugar: 7g
- Sodium: 60mg
- Fat: 6g
- Saturated Fat: 3.5g
- Unsaturated Fat: 2g
- Trans Fat: 0g
- Carbohydrates: 13g
- Fiber: 0.3g
- Protein: 1g
- Cholesterol: 18mg
