SWIRLED PEPPERMINT COOKIES

Swirled Peppermint Cookies image

My husband and I were married on July 26, 1986. A few weeks before our first Christmas together, we received a sweet card from my friend, Roanne Funk. In the card she wrote that as we began our lives together, we could establish our own family Christmas traditions. So from her encouragement, I set out to find a recipe that...

Provided by Elin Criswell

Categories Cookies

Time 1h10m

Number Of Ingredients 8

Ingredients

1 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
2 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/4 tsp salt
red food coloring drops

Steps:

1. Cream butter and sugar together, mixing until light and fluffy. Add beaten egg and peppermint extract, mix well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt, stirring to mix. Add to creamed mixture until just mixed in.
3. Divide dough in half. To one portion of dough, using your thumbs make a well in the dough, add a few drops of red food coloring, then carefully knead the dough to distribute the food coloring. Continue adding enough food color and kneading in, until the desired shade of red has been achieved. Leave the remaining dough it's normal color. Cover both dough portions with wax paper and refrigerate for about 15 minutes.
4. Take both dough portions out of the refrigerator. Form and flatten the red dough portion into a small log and place on a piece of wax paper. Cover with another piece of wax paper. Using a rolling pin, carefully roll out the dough into a rectangle approximately 12" x 10". Set aside.
5. Repeat the last step with the white dough portion, but roll this out into a rectangle approximately 10" x 8". Remove top piece of wax paper and invert rolled out white dough onto the rolled out red dough.
6. Carefully roll up dough jellyroll-style, peeling bottom piece of wax paper. Cover rolled up red and white dough roll with wax paper and refrigerate for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
7. Slice dough into 1/4" slices and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes. The cookies are done when the bottom of the cookies are slightly browned.