Brush up your Play-Doh skills, everyone! Because we’re baking Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies on the blog today.
Colors are a big theme in The Things She’s Seen. Beth sees beautiful, beckoning colors that she knows she should go toward (“the afterlife”), and Catching and Crow have “the colors” viciously torn out of them by the Feed. The concept of colors represents SO much in this incredible novel — hope, strength, happiness, peace — that I knew my book-inspired recipe would have to be super colorful.
I was brainstorming about what foods contain a whole heap o’ colors, and eventually those swirly, rainbow pinwheel lollipops came to mind. I used to love those as a kid, but they were so big that I could never finish them.
But, Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies? Those, I could finish.
I know that this recipe might seem a little daunting at first – omg, FOUR colors in ONE cookie?!?! How many bowls will I need? Will I be doing dishes forever? Will my kitchen counter be permanently stained from the food dye? UGH.
Fear not, my baking friends, for making these Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies is surprisingly easy. And FUN. It’s seriously like “baking” with Play-Doh when you were a kid.
I mixed up the dough, colors and everything, for the FIRST TIME in about 30 minutes. After 10 minutes of chill time in the fridge, I rolled out the dough — with my bare hands! on a non-floured surface! Could this get any simpler?? — into cute little pinwheels and had them baked off within the hour. #EasyPeasy.
However, I make no promises about your kitchen not ending up in a rainbow of colors like these cookies. I once squeezed a food coloring bottle a bit too enthusiastically when making a red velvet cake, and I was cleaning up spots of red dye from the far corners of my kitchen for months afterward. The containers are finicky little suckers. Just be careful.
This Rainbow Pinwheel Cookie dough comes together SO easily. I adapted it from a recipe I use each Christmas for Peppermint Pinwheel cookies. I love making this dough because it has very few ingredients, and all of them are ones I regularly stock in my pantry. I can customize the taste and colors any way I want, though I decided to play it safe and use good ol’ fashioned vanilla extract this time. I saved going a lil’ cray-cray for the colors!
You all know my love-hate relationship with my Kitchen Aid stand mixer, but these Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies definitely make me swoon over this piece of kitchen equipment. You can make the dough in one bowl with one mixing paddle, and the stand mixer bowls are usually deep enough to minimize color splatter. Of course, you could make the dough with a hand mixer, but I think it would take you a bit longer. And, be slightly messier.
You’re making one batch of dough, then dividing it into four quarters and adding a different color into each quarter. If you mix the colors in the order I tell you — yellow, red, green, then blue — and scrape down the bowl and paddle really well between quarters, you’ll end up with four distinctly colored pieces of dough. (Though, if you end up with a little marbleized action, it’s no biggie. You’re going to twist the colors together at the end anyway.)
I had a blast making these Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies. The colored dough is so vibrant and fun, and I sprinkled the pinwheels with sanding sugar to enhance the rainbow effect. These cookies are crisp and light, almost like shortbread, with a fresh, simple vanilla flavor and a good crunch when you take a bite. It’s easy to gobble up a few at a time, so if you’re planning on making these cookies for a large group, I’d double the batch.
Put out a platter of this eye-popping dessert and watch it be a hit with kids and adults alike.
Rainbow Pinwheel Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 7 drops yellow food coloring
- 10 drops red food coloring
- 9 drops green food coloring
- 12 drops blue food coloring
- sanding sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
PREP INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Set aside a large dinner plate or cutting board (anything that won’t absorb color!!) on your work surface.
BAKING INSTRUCTIONS
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl, then set aside.
- In a bowl fitted to your stand-mixer, cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla, then mix until thoroughly combined.
- Slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed, until all ingredients are thoroughly combined.
- Turn off mixer (but leave bowl and paddle attached) and scrap out the cookie dough onto a clean (but un-floured) work surface. Shape and flatten dough into a thick disc, then use a knife to divide the disc into four equal parts.
- Place Quarter 1 back in the mixing bowl and add the yellow food coloring, then mix together until color is thoroughly incorporated into the dough. Scrape the yellow dough out of bowl and form into a small ball, then place on the dinner plate/cutting board you set aside earlier.
- Repeat the above process with Quarter 2 (red food coloring), Quarter 3 (green food coloring), and Quarter 4 (blue food coloring). IT IS IMPORTANT TO CREATE THE COLORED DOUGH IN THIS ORDER.
- Use your hands to roll out each quarter of colored dough into a long rope on your work surface, making sure that each rope is around the same length as the others. Place the four colored ropes together, as if making a rainbow.
- Take all four dough ropes and twist together into a single, twisted log of dough.
- Wrap the log of cookie dough in plastic wrap and set in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
- Remove slightly chilled dough from the fridge, unwrap, and place the log on your (un-floured) clean work surface. Pinch off a 1-inch piece of dough from the log, then use your hands to roll it into a multicolored rope (about 8-9 inches long). Then, curl the rope up on itself like a snail shell or pinwheel and place on the lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with sanding sugar if desired. Repeat process with remaining dough.
- Bake pinwheel cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350F. Let cool about 5 minutes on baking sheets, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
