Raspberry Vanilla Swirls

Lake Eden's Cookbook

DO NOT preheat oven -- cookie dough must chill before baking.

* 2 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (scoop it up and level it off with a table knife -- don't pack it down in the cup)
* 1 teaspoon raspberry extract
* 1 teaspoon red food coloring
* 1 Tablespoon seedless raspberry jam
* 1/8 cup (2 Tablespoons) all-purpose flour (that's in addition to the flour you added earlier)
* Powdered sugar for rolling out the dough

### Directions

**Hannah's 1st Note:** *This is easy with an electric mixer, but you can also do it by hand*.

1. Place the sugar in a large mixing bowl.
2. Add the softened butter and mix until it's light and fluffy.
3. Add the egg and mix well.
4. Sprinkle in the salt and the baking powder. Mix until they're thoroughly incorporated.
5. Add the vanilla extract. Mix it in well.
6. Add the flour by half-cup increments, mixing after each addition.
7. Scrape down the sides of the mixing bowl and give the dough a final stir by hand.
8. Place a sheet of wax paper on the counter. Dust the wax paper with powdered sugar.
9. Remove HALF of the cookie dough from your mixing bowl and place it on the wax paper. Pat it out like pie crust with your impeccably clean hands and then dust the top with more powdered sugar.
10. With a rolling pin, roll the dough into a triangle that is approximately 1/4 inch thick. Cover the dough with another sheet of wax paper and store it in the refrigerator.
11. Go back to the dough in the mixer. This will be the raspberry part of your cookie pinwheels.
12. Turn the mixer on LOW and add the raspberry extract and the red food coloring. If you bought it in one of those little squeeze bottles, you don't have to measure out a teaspoonful. Just keep adding drops until you think it's the right color for your pinwheels.
13. Heat the Tablespoon of seedless raspberry jam in the microwave a for a few seconds until it reverts to a liquid. Then add it to your mixing bowl and mix it in.
14. You've added more liquid to your cookie dough, so now  you must add a bit more flour. Sprinkle in the additional eighth cup of flour and mix well.
15. Tear off a sheet of wax paper and spread it out on the counter. Dust it with powdered sugar and roll out the pink half of our dough. Again, form a rectangle that is approximately 1/4 inch thick.
16. Cover the raspberry half of your dough with another sheet of wax paper. Place it on top of your vanilla cookie dough in the refrigerator.
17. Chill both halves of your pinwheel cookie dough for at least 2 hours.
18. After your cookie dough has chilled for 2 hours, tear off another sheet of wax paper and spread it out on the counter. Dust it with powdered sugar. This will hold the cookie roll you're about to make.
19. Grasping the raspberry dough by the corners of the wax paper, carefully slide it off the vanilla dough and place it to the side on the counter. Then peep the top sheet of wax paper off the vanilla dough, working slowly and carefully so that it doesn't tear.
20. When the vanilla dough is bare on top, position the long end of the raspberry dough rectangle next to the long end of the vanilla dough rectangle. Peel the top layer of wax paper from your raspberry cookie dough.
21. Dust the bare top of your raspberry cookie dough with powdered sugar. Then cover it with the sheet of wax paper you ore off earlier. Grasping both sheets of wax paper, the one on the top and the one on the bottom, flip the raspberry dough over so that the side you dusted with powdered sugar is now on the bottom.

**Hannah's 2nd Note:** *Believe me, this is harder to explain that it is to do. I wish I could just come over to your kitchen and show you*!

1. Peel off the top sheet of wax paper and slide the raspberry dough on top of the vanilla dough. Working carefully and loosening the wax paper as you go, push your raspberry cookie dough off the wax paper and onto the bare vanilla cookie dough.
2. If the edges of the dough are uneven, trim them with a sharp knife. Use the pieces of dough you've trimmed for patches if there are any holes.
3. Working from the long side of the rectangle, roll up the dough so that it form a log. This will create a pinwheel late when you slice the log into cookies.
4. Roll your cookie log in a piece of wax paper, twist the ends to keep the roll from coming undone, and refrigerate it for another 2 hours. (*Overnight is fine, too.*)

**Hannah's 3rd Note**: *At this point, you can even freeze the dough log if you put it into a large freezer bag that's airtight. Thaw it in the refrigerator 24 hours before you want to bake the cookies.*

1. When 2 hours have passed, preheat your oven to 375 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
2. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or spray it with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray. If your cookie roll has flattened in the refrigerator, you can roll it a bit on the counter to round it out.
3. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/4 inch slices from the cookie dough log. Cut only as many as you can bake at one time and return the log to the refrigerator between baking.
4. Place the Raspberry Vanilla Swirls on the cookie sheet, twelve to a standard-size sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees F., for 8 to 10 minutes.
6. Remove the cookies from the oven and cool them on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

**Yield**: 4 to 6 dozen pretty and tasty cookies that everyone will love.

## Conversion Charts

See Baking Conversion Chart for non-USA baking conversions.