These patriotic swirl cookies are perfect for the 4th of July and definitely worth the effort! You’ll never believe the secret to getting a perfect swirl when you cut it!
I absolutely love the 4th of July. It’s probably my second favorite holiday after Halloween. The food and the fireworks and the weather. I love it. I was going to make some fabric flowers to put on my grapevine wreath for the holiday but I couldn’t find the kind of shirts I wanted so you get cookies instead. I didn’t think you’d mind.
These beautiful patriotic swirl cookies are the most involved cookies I’ve made in awhile. All for you! I modified the Christmas Cookie recipe from Mrs. Field’s cookbook so I could get a little sweeter cookie. Mrs. Field expects you to decorate them with tons of cookie icing and sprinkles so her recipe has less sugar. If you want a cookie that tastes more like shortbread then decrease the amount of sugar by a 1/4 cup. Or use your own favorite sugar cookie recipe! I like how these turned out with the bump in flavor since I wasn’t decorating them with anything this time.
Don’t those look divine?! They turned out so pretty and bright. I was really happy with the Wilton colors (aff) that I used. If you’re not sold on gel food coloring you really should try it because it makes such a difference in flavor, consistency, and color. These cookies are so darling and honestly I’m super impressed with myself. I’m not generally one for rolling out cookies. Cookies shouldn’t be work! But these were worth the effort.
Wanna know a secret? The key to that perfectly gorgeous swirl not getting all squished when you cut them? Dental floss! Lay a long strand of dental floss under the roll, pull it up around the roll, cross it at the top, and pull so it slices quickly through the roll. Boom. A perfect swirl unsquished by those pesky knives. Just don’t use mint. Please. Trust me.
What’s your favorite 4th of July recipe?
Patriotic Swirl Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- ¾ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 egg
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and combine flour and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- In an electric mixer combine butter and sugar and beat until well mixed. Add egg and vanilla and beat until blended.
- Add flour and salt mixture a little at a time until just mixed.
- Separate the dough into 3 equal parts.
- Using a concentrated gel food coloring color one part red and one part blue.
- Wrap the sections in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm.
- Roll each piece of dough into a rectangle about the size of a piece of paper. Lay the blue on the bottom, white in the middle, and red on top.
- Carefully roll it into a log and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate again for about an hour or until firm.
- Cut the cookies about ¼ inch thick using unflavored dental floss or a very sharp knife.
- Bake at 325 degrees for about 15-20 minutes depending on thickness.
