first published as Christmas Swirl Cookies in 2018
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| A hint of peppermint, a pretty swirl, sparkly bits - kid/ults will love these 'If they came in a packet, I would eat the entire lot in one go'.'Very delicious. Great texture; not dry or hard.' |
The cookie dough is made in advance, popped into the freezer, then, when needed, sliced (from frozen) in the quantities needed, baked and decorated. The still-frozen dough goes back into the freezer immediately after slicing for another day.
The swirly bit on these lovelies takes a teensy bit more work than a standard freezer cookie but hey, it's for Christmas!
The dough itself is easy; older kids could handle it with ease. Everyone else will love forming the dough into a spiral and, when cooked, rolling the biscuits in icing and sparkly coloured bits.
Note that the recipe involves two different coloured doughs; therefore the recipe must be made TWICE in order to achieve the swirl!!
The blog is not a fan of artificial food colouring but Waitrose sells several basic colours without 'E' numbers. However, the colour is not intense; 67's dough needed a good 2 teaspoons of Waitrose red colouring before it took on a pink hue; even then the finished product didn't show pink at all...
Still, no one noticed!
Cost: £4'ish without decorative flourishes (Nov 24)
Makes: 40-50 (2 good-size freezer rolls)
Ingreds: make this dough TWICE, one plain; one pink (see batches below)
75gm/2.6oz unsalted dairy or plant butter that's not too cold or too warm; in cubes
150gm/5.2oz white common flour
75gm/2.6oz granulated sugar
pinch salt
1 med egg
1 well-cooked cooked egg yolk (left in boiled water at least 10 mins)
Batch 1: 1/2 tsp vanilla
Batch 2: 1/2 tsp essence of peppermint
2-2.5 tsp red food colouring (or until dough takes on pink colour)
Icing:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp cherry brandy (adults) or water or dairy/plant milk plus 1/2 tsp water
coloured sugar or other decorative bits: stars, coloured balls, hundreds & thousands (opt)*
Method:
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The blog is not a fan of artificial food colouring but Waitrose sells several basic colours without 'E' numbers. However, the colour is not intense; 67's dough needed a good 2 teaspoons of Waitrose red colouring before it took on a pink hue; even then the finished product didn't show pink at all...
Still, no one noticed!
Cost: £4'ish without decorative flourishes (Nov 24)
Makes: 40-50 (2 good-size freezer rolls)
Ingreds: make this dough TWICE, one plain; one pink (see batches below)
75gm/2.6oz unsalted dairy or plant butter that's not too cold or too warm; in cubes
150gm/5.2oz white common flour
75gm/2.6oz granulated sugar
pinch salt
1 med egg
1 well-cooked cooked egg yolk (left in boiled water at least 10 mins)
Batch 1: 1/2 tsp vanilla
Batch 2: 1/2 tsp essence of peppermint
2-2.5 tsp red food colouring (or until dough takes on pink colour)
Icing:
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 tbsp cherry brandy (adults) or water or dairy/plant milk plus 1/2 tsp water
coloured sugar or other decorative bits: stars, coloured balls, hundreds & thousands (opt)*
Method:
- Mix flour, sugar & salt
- Add butter; roughly process or rub between fingers until mix is the size of peas
- Add raw egg, flavouring & well mashed egg yolk; work in with processor or hand mixer until well combined and coming together
- Wrap in cling film; refrigerate 30 mins
- Repeat with second batch of dough, colouring it pink
- When ready, turn white dough out onto lightly floured large piece of cling film; cover with similar sized cling film
- Roll out to a thickness of 1/3inch/3mm to an 11x8inch/28x20cm rectangle - this is your base; return to fridge until 2nd batch of dough is ready
- Repeat with pink dough but cut away 1/4inch on all four edges; centre the pink layer on top of white
- Roll up tightly along the long edge; wrap in cling film, twisting the ends to help the cookies take on a circular shape OR shape into a square or triangle & wrap in cling film
- Bake within 3 days or freeze until ready to use
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 200c/180fan/375f
- Cut in 1/4 inch/1cm slices using a sharp serrated knife (the dough can be sliced from frozen with the remainder going back in the fridge)
- Place on baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper or a silicone mat, leaving a bit of space in between
- Bake 10 mins, turning tray from back to front if one side browns quicker than the other
- Cool on a baking rack
When completely cold:
- Mix icing, spread on a flat plat
- Sprinkle coloured sugar on another flat plate
- Take each cookie; roll the edges only in the icing, then in coloured sugar
- Place on cooling rack until icing has set
*Waitrose, M&S, Morrisons
Comments:
Tips:
- 'If these came in a packet, I would eat the entire lot in one go. Good & crunchy; cute to look at as well. I like the sparkly things.' Political Agent
- 'Very delicious. Really good nice sweet biscuit with the sparkly bits adding a contrasting flavour. Great texture; not dry and hard.' Campaign manager.
Tips:
- 67 used white common flour & granulated sugar to keep the colours 'clean' but anyone concerned about sugar highs could substitute 75% white flour and 25% wholemeal and use light brown sugar. The cookies would also work with spelt flour.
- sadly neither of my guinea pigs could taste the peppermint but the un-iced ones at home had a noticeable peppermint flavour
- small households could make just one batch and divide it into two.
- 67 has not had a chance to test this recipe with plant margarine but has had excellent resuolts in other baking recipes using the plant margarine Tomor. Work is underway on a spelt flour version of this recipe.
More on NavBar: Recipes I/Cookies
This recipe has been developed by B Lee/ Bright Sun Enterprises and may not be reproduced, in any form, without the author's written permission.
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