Love it! these twist cookies are so fun to make and yours are so colorful.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups flour, plus possibly a few more tbsp (the original recipe called for cake flour, but I just used regular old all-purpose flour since I was all out of a softasilk)
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2/3 cup unsifted powdered sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter (cut in chunks)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/2 tsp of food coloring of your choice(and/or 1/2 tsp of any desired extra extracts)
- 1 1/2 cup holiday sprinkles
Instructions:
- In a stand mixer, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and sugars with paddle on medium until well blended.
- Add butter in, gradually, and continue mixing. Add in vanilla extract. At this point, your dough will form a ball on your paddle.
- Remove all your dough and divide into two equal parts. Return one portion back in to the mixer and add the food coloring and any extra extracts.
- I used Wilton gel food coloring in leaf green and vanilla extract for this batch. You could coordinate your colors and flavors, for example green food coloring matched with a mint extract or yellow with a lemon extract, etc.
- Also, if you are using liquid food coloring, you will need to add a few tbsp of flour to keep the dough from becoming too wet. Mix until the color is spread out evenly.
- Roll out each portions of your dough, between two sheets a wax paper until is reaches about 11 x 9 inches and is 1/4 inch thick.
- Slide both unto a cookie sheet and chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
- When firm, remove the top sheets of wax paper from both. Brush the uncolored vanilla dough lightly with water using a pastry brush.
- Then flip the colored dough onto the vanilla uncolored dough so they are stacked atop each other and even.
- Press the edges lightly with your fingertips to seal them together. Using a small pairing knife, trim the edges of the dough to make straight, even lines.
- Pour out sprinkles onto a large platter and set aside.
- Be sure your dough is still cold, but flexible. Once it's ready, begin rolling the long side of dough into a swirl, jelly-roll style.
- Now, don't get nervous if the outer layer of uncolored dough tears a bit. It's no problem, just pinch and pat those tears and voila, then just keep rolling.
- Now gently lift your dough log onto the sprinkles and roll away.
- Cover the log completely with your sprinkles. Wrap the colorfully decorated log in plastic wrap twice.
- Depending on when you want to bake the cookies, either place the wrapped dough into refrigerator for about 3-4 hours or you can put it the freezer and keep it there for up to 2 months. (If freezing, give yourself time for the dough to defrost in the fridge overnight before cutting.)
- Slice your dough into 1/4-1/8 inch slices and bake on parchment lined baking sheets.
- Bake at 350 for 15-17 minutes until edges are slightly golden.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then move them to a cookie rack to finish cooling.
- Enjoy your whimsical Christmas cookies!