Halloween is only a month away.  Which means Christmas is 86 days away, which means New Year’s Day is 93 days away.  Which means the first day of Spring is only 171 days away.

Now that you are all freaked out about how soon all these special dates are coming, lets get to some fun Halloween stuff.

I have a recipe for Christmas Pinwheel cookies that is extremely versatile.  I usually just make them at Christmas time, mainly because they can be a tad time consuming to make due to making the dough one day, then baking the next.    So you have to make sure you clear your calendar for 2 days.  Tell your boss you can’t come to work for the next 2 days because you have to make these cookies.  I am sure he will understand, especially if you bring some in for him.

Did you see that? Off I went again on another sidebar discussion.  Halloween.  Back to Halloween.

Here is an irresistible Halloween treat that once you have made and served them to your family, you are doomed to making them forever.  You are welcome.

Halloween Pinwheel Cookies

Ingredients

4 Cups All-Purpose Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Salt
1 1/3 Cups Un-Salted Butter
1 Cup Packed Brown Sugar
2/3 Cups White Sugar
2 Large Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Food Colouring (paste or liquid) in colours of choice

Directions

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together into a bowl. Resift again into another bowl.

2. Beat the butter with the brown and white sugars in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until evenly blended. Gather the dough into a ball, and divide into two equal parts.  (Dough will be a bit sticky at first, once you add the food colouring and work it in, it becomes less sticky.  Having a kitchen that is cooler helps, alternately, place the dough in the fridge for 20 minutes, then proceed to rolling out the dough.)  Place one half in a second bowl. Add one of the chosen food colorings to the dough in one bowl, and the other to the other dough. Use a fork or wooden spoon to blend the food coloring into the dough until evenly blended. Add additional drops of food coloring to until desired shade is reached.

3.  Roll out the one dough ball to 1/4 inch (5mm) thickness. Roll out the other ball of dough to 1/4 inch (5mm) thickness, and place on top of the first one. Beginning on one long side edge, roll the dough up together to make a log so the two colors spiral inside each other. Wrap the log in waxed paper, then in a cotton towel, and refrigerate at least 8 hours or overnight.

4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 2 baking sheets or use parchment paper.

5. Unwrap the dough log, and place on a clean, lightly floured surface. Slice the log into rounds 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick, and place on prepared baking sheets.

6. Bake in preheated oven until set, 5 to 6 minutes. * Watch carefully to prevent edges from over browning, not all ovens are the same so pay attention to how long the first batch cooks and go from there.

Remove from oven, and cool on racks.  Makes about 6 dozen cookies.