Christmas Pinwheel Spiral Swirl Sugar Cookies – Easy No-Chill Recipe

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This is the easiest pinwheel spiral cookie recipe you will ever find!  No chilling of the dough needed – your amazing colorful swirl sugar cookies will be ready in 30 minutes from start to finish!  You can call this recipe “Christmas Pinwheel Sugar Cookies For The Impatient” :)

Easy Spiral Swirl Pinwheel Cookies Recipe With No Chill Dough

If you are looking for a recipe for classic Christmas pinwheel swirl sugar cookies, I’m sure you have found that all these recipes are quite time consuming due to the requirement of chilling of the dough.  They ask you to chill the dough twice – once for at least 2 hours after the dough is rolled, and another 2 hours after the dough is shaped into the log.  That’s a lot of logistics to plan to work around!  If you need a recipe that doesn’t require any chilling, so you can make the spiral cookies right away without the wait, THIS IS IT!

These pinwheel spiral cookies can be make in 30 minutes flat from start to finish – yay!  You don’t need to refrigerate the dough and don’t need to wait for anything.  Just make the dough the easy way by combining ingredients in a food processor, roll into a log, slice and bake!  It’s the best and easiest Christmas swirl sugar cookie recipe ever!

Christmas Pinwheel Sugar Cookies Recipe

Another great thing about these amazing colorful swirl cookies is they hold their shape when baked.  Many of these types of cookies spread into giant blobs if not chilled before baking, but not these no-chill spiral cookies!  Just sliced them and bake them, and they won’t expand by more than half an inch.  Their shape stays perfect and the taste is amazing!

When you taste these cheerful swirl cookies, you’ll just keep reaching for more.  They just melt in your mouth, they are so good!  Their texture is so amazing – it’s tender yet crisp – exactly what you want in a sugar cookie!

Christmas No-Chill Pinwheel Swirl Sugar Cookies Recipe

I’m using the Christmas colors of red, white and green for this classic Christmas pinwheel cookie recipe, but feel free to change out the color for other holidays!  You can have blue and white for Hanukkah, red and white for Valentine’s day, orange and brown for Halloween – anything goes!

Christmas Spiral Cookies

How To Make Spiral Swirl Pinwheel Cookies

Step 1: Make The Pinwheel Cookie Dough

In a food processor, blend butter, sugar, vanilla and egg, then add flour and baking powder and process until it turns into dough.  Divide the dough into 2 parts.  Add 1 part back to the food processor, add food coloring and process until dough is fully colored.

Pinwheel Cookie Dough

Step 2: Make The Log Out Of The Dough

Roll the dough on parchment paper into 2 rectangles of 8×11 inches (same size as a sheet of paper).  Put the colored dough on top of the white one.

How To Make Christmas Pinwheel Spiral Swirl Cookies

Start rolling into a log as shown.  Don’t worry if the dough breaks, just keep rolling it tight.

Making a pinwheel cookie log

Use the parchment paper to help you roll the dough.

Rolling The Log For Pinwheel Christmas Cookies

When the log is ready, pinch the edges of the dough to seal.

Pinwheel Cookies Dough Log

Roll the log in the colored sugar sprinkles to decorate the outside.

Rolling The Swirl Cookie Dough Log In Sprinkles

Step 3: Slice The Dough Log Into Cookies And Bake

Use a large serrated knife to carefully slice the dough log into cookies.

Christmas Swirl Sugar Cookies

Bake the spiral cookies in a pre-heated 350F oven for 10 minutes, then allow to completely cool.

How To Make Pinwheel Sugar Cookies

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Easy No-Chill Pinwheel Swirl Sugar Cookies

This is the easiest pinwheel cookie recipe ever! All other recipes for these swirl cookies require chilling of the dough and this one doesn't! You can make these spiral cookies in 30 minutes from start to finish!
Prep Time20 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time30 minutes
Course: Cookie, Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350F.
  • Put butter and sugar in a food processor fitted with a dough blade or steel blade and process for 1 minute or until smooth.
  • Add egg and vanilla and process for 30 seconds or until smooth.
  • Add flour and baking powder and process for 2 minutes or until it turns into dough.
  • Remove the dough from the food processor and divide into 2 equal parts.
  • Put 1 part of the dough back into the food processor and add green food coloring to it. Process for 1 minute or until the dough color is uniformly green.
  • Put white and green dough on separate sheets of parchment paper and flatten into disks.
  • Roll white and green dough into a rectangle shape the size of 8x11 inches (same as a standard sheet of paper - use the paper as a guide for the dough size). Use your hands to help shape the dough into the rectangle, especially the corners. If the dough breaks, just fix it by pinching it together with your fingers.
  • Using the parchment paper to help you, turn out the green dough and put it on top of the white dough (the dough part touching), so they are directly on top of each other. Peel off the top parchment paper.
  • Roll the dough into a tight log (roll the long side of the dough). Don't worry if the dough breaks - just keep pressing and rolling. When the log is ready, pinch the edge of the dough to seal.
  • Put the red sugar sprinkles on a large plate. Put the dough log on top of the sprinkles and roll it around so it's completely covered in red sugar.
  • With a large serrated knife, carefully cut off the ends of the log so the sides of the log are even.
  • Line 2 baking sheet with parchment paper.
  • With a large serrated knife, carefully slice the log into 1/4 inch cookie rounds and place them on the baking sheet at least 1 inch apart.
  • Put the spiral cookies in the oven and bake for 10 minutes.
  • Take the cookies out of the oven (they will seem too soft and undercooked) and let cool completely. After they cool, they will harden into a perfect textured pinwheel cookie!

Notes

If you don't have a food processor, you can use a mixer. If the dough becomes too stiff for the mixer, finish kneading the dough by hand.
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2 Comments

  1. Would love to try, but recipe says “1 cup 2 sticks butter, softened” and I’m confused. 2 sticks of butter are the same as one cup; do you mean add 2 c in total or just one and you’re giving two versions of the measurement amount?

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