Valentine's Pinwheel Cookies

It started snowing yesterday...and it just kept snowing.  Until about an hour ago, that is.  I'm currently looking at almost a foot of snow covering my yard. 

LOVE IT!

This California girl still gets giddy when it snows-I embrace snow days just as much as my daughter does.

I just got word that school is officially cancelled tomorrow also- no big surprise there given the amount of snow outside!  Unfortunately, tomorrow is Valentine's Day and that means my daughter will be missing out on her much-anticipated pajama day/Valentine's Day party at school.

Time to do something special at home!

I took to my Pinterest boards, as I am wont to do in situations like this, and found this recipe from Allrecipes.com.  It's originally written as a Christmas cookie recipe, but I love how easily adaptable it is for whatever colors you need.  

I went with a standard white sugar cookie dough swirled with hot pink.  Before chilling the cookie dough log I lightly wetted the dough roll and rolled it in little Valentine's decorating hearts.  I had a little pink dough leftover that I made into bite-sized cookies and rolled in non pareils (kind of reminiscent of those frosted animal cracker cookies, right?).

So cute!  And tasty too.  My little girl might be missing out on her class celebration tomorrow, but we'll definitely be making the day special at home instead!

Pinwheel Cookies

From Allrecipes.com

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/3 cups butter

1 cup packed brown sugar

2/3 cup white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Food coloring as needed

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a bowl. Resift again into another bowl.

2. Beat the butter with the brown and white sugars in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until evenly blended. Gather the dough into a ball, and divide into two equal parts. Place one half in a second bowl. Add food coloring as desired to the dough in one bowl, and different food coloring as desired to the dough in the other bowl. Use a fork or wooden spoon to blend the food coloring into the dough until evenly blended. Add additional drops of food coloring to make the desired shade.

3. Roll out the one of the colored doughs to 1/4 inch (5mm) thickness. Roll out the the other color dough to 1/4 inch (5mm) thickness, and place on top of the red dough. Beginning on one edg
e, roll the doughs to make a log so the two colors spiral inside each other. Wrap the log in waxed paper, then in a cotton towel, and refrigerate at least 8 hours.

4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease 2 baking sheets.
Unwrap the dough log, and place on a clean, lightly floured surface. Slice the log into rounds 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, and place on prepared baking sheets.

5. Bake in preheated oven until set, 5 to 6 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent edges from browning. Remove from oven, and cool on racks.