How cute are these cookies? Last night I had so much fun making them that I found myself in the kitchen for 4 hours trying batch after batch experimenting with different flavors.
Yesterday Max, a brilliant and creative reader emailed me some pictures of her peppermint pinwheel cookies that she made using my Sugar Cookie Recipe. I was enamored, and had to try making them myself. I simplified max’s idea just slightly and figured out a way to make the recipe flexible so that it would work to create 12 different flavors.
These cookies are perfect for ANY holiday! I made a double batch of peppermint and colored them red and green to add a spark of fun to my cookie platter this year. Though they look super cute all on their own. If you want to add some extra pizazz frost the edges and roll them in sprinkles or sanding sugar.
I use this recipe to make the frosting. Since I needed my cookies to be sugar free I made my own sanding sugar! This is SO easy to do. Just place the granulated sugar of your choice (I used Xylitol) into a small seal-able plastic bag and then add a few drops of food coloring. Shake up the bag until the sugar is evenly colored! This sanding sugar works amazing on all cookies! I used it to decorate my cut out sugar cookies this year too!
The fun comes with picking your flavor! All you need to do is pick a flavor of extract. These cookies can be: Mint, Lemon, Cherry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Banana, Orange, Coffee, Almond, Hazelnut, Coconut or Maple.
Paleo Pinwheel Cookies
- 2 Packed Cups of Blanched Almond Flour
- 1/4 Tsp. Baking Powder (I use double acting)
- 3 Tbs of Sugar Free Maple, Regular Maple, Honey, Coconut Nectar or Agave.
- 1 Tbs Extract (Flavor of choice)
- 1/4 Tsp Salt
- 1/8-1/4 Tsp. Nunaturals Liquid Stevia. (optional and to taste).
- Natural Food Coloring.
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Line 1 baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, Syrup, Extract and Salt. Stir for a moment and then use your hands to kneed the dough together. (It will not seem like its going to come together at first). Give the dough a taste test- want it sweeter? Add the stevia to taste. If after kneading the dough for a minute and it still feels crumbly (and its still this way after adding stevia) you may add 1/8 tsp of water. (Be careful as a little bit goes a long way, if you add to much your dough will quickly become a sticky mess!). This dough should be firm, hold together and be super easy to roll out.
- Divide the dough and place half in a second bowl. Use food coloring of choice and mix into the dough. It may take a moment of kneading to get the color all mixed in evenly.
- One at a time (keeping them separate) roll out both halves of the dough between two sheets of parchment into 10 inch tall by 6 inch wide rectangles. (You want them to be as close in size as possible.). Once both pieces are evenly rolled out- gently place the colored rectangle on top of the natural colored dough. Using a knife trim the edges so that layers are the same exact size.
- Using parchment paper as your guide carefully roll up the rectangle of dough. While doing this keep the roll as tight as possible.
- Once rolled up- use a sharp knife and slice into circular cookies! (Slice 1/4 inch thick or even thinner if you want).
- Place the cookies on the lined sheet of parchment. Bake 10-15 minutes for a soft cookie or longer for a crisp cookie (If you want a crisp cookie- just remove them from the oven as soon as they start to get golden brown on the edges.) (Note: If using honey, or agave your baking time will be closer to ten minutes, if using the sugar free maple syrup you’ll need closer to 15 minutes).
Yields 1 tray of silver dollar sized cookies. If you would like larger cookies, this can be done by simply double the recipe and increasing the baking time by a few minutes.
Substitution & Recipe Notes:
- For the cookies to be 100% “Paleo” make them using real maple syrup, honey or coconut nectar.
- To make these cookies 100% sugar free use Joseph’s All Natural Maple Flavor Syrup! The maple flavor is not dominant enough that it will affect at all any of the various flavors you might select. I tried it with Peppermint, Banana, Orange and Cherry.. I could not taste the maple at all- only the flavor I was going after.
- Can’t have almonds? Make your own nut or seed flour using any other nut/seed of choice. I suspect that Hazelnut, Macadamias, Cashews or Sunflower seeds turned into flour would all taste great! To do this simply run the nut or seed in a high powdered blender or coffee grinder until you have a super fine flour. (If the flour is course- the recipe might not work as well.)
- PLEASE NOTE: coconut flour WILL NOT work. (It never ever works as a replacement for Almond Flour!) And any of the grain based flours will NOT work. Stick to the nuts and seeds.
- Want to avoid unnatural food coloring? Try using the food coloring from India Tree or order some from THIS company.
-Brittany-
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These look fabulous! My grandmother used to make date pinwheel cookies – Do you think it would work using this recipe but using a date filling instead of the colored dough?
I think that may work! If you try please let me know how they turn out!
These look beautiful! I’ definitely be trying these for the holiday cookie tray this year! Thanks!
Dill weed is more common than dill seed when it comes to cooking, likely because of dill weed’s mild flavor and pleasing texture.
It’s our job at the cooking college at which I teach to examine how food reacts
under different exposures to heat. For more help visit to: Barbecuing chicken is
very healthy way to cook because the fat juices do not get absorbed by the chicken.
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