I was thinking of a sweet Valentine’s Day treat wondering what cookie says, “I Love You”?

I went through my recipe file and noticed I had not made these pinwheel cookies in a while.

To make the Pink Pinwheel Cookies, I divided the cookie dough into half.  In one half, I added red food coloring to get the pink swirls in the cookies.

The cookies go great with coffee or tea.

Pink Pinwheel Cookies Adding Red Food Coloring

Pink Pinwheel Cookie Recipe Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Butter Flavor Crisco Shortening
• 1 1/2 Cups of Granulated Sugar
• 1/2 Cup of Light Brown Sugar
• 3 Medium Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons of Milk
• 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Flavoring
• 4 to 5 Cups of All Purpose Flour
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Cream of Tarter
• 1/2 Teaspoon on Salt
• 10 to 16 Drops of Red Food Coloring

Directions

1. Cream the Crisco and sugars together until light and fluffy.
2. Beat in eggs, one at a time, add milk and vanilla flavoring.
3. Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.  Mix into creamed mixture until well blended.
4. Divide dough into half.  Into one side add red food coloring and mix well.  If you like a darker pink, add more drops.
5. Chill dough for at least one hour.
6. On a floured piece of wax paper, roll the plain sugar cookie dough into a rectangle.
7. Roll the pink colored dough into the same sized rectangle on wax paper.
8. Place the pink rectangle of dough over the plain dough.  Roll the rolling pin over both doughs to stick together.
9. Roll into a log shape.  Wrap log with wax paper and chill for one hour.
10. Heat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
11. Using a sharp knife thinly slice the cookie log into approximately 1/4-inch slices.  Turn the log slightly after each cut to keep the cylinder shape even.
12. Bake for approximately 8 to 10 minutes depending on the size of your pinwheel cookie.  The cookie edges will be lightly brown when done.

Mixing in the Red Food Coloring Cookies on Baking Sheet Rolling Cookie Dough into a Log Shape

There are a lot of steps with this cookie but it is worth the effort.  Instead of the usual vanilla flavoring, you can add some peppermint extract instead.

Plate of Pink Pinwheel Cookies

FYI – These Pink Pinwheel Cookies are being served on a vintage 1920 open handle ceramic cake platter with a raised design.  There are three production marks on the back.

The edges of the plate are trimmed in gold but the gold finish has worn off over the years.

The cake platter was made by the Carl Tielsch Allwasser factory in Germany which is now Poland.  Their work was known for high quality and collected for its artistic value.