Name: Halloween Pinwheel Cookies
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 52 min
Ingredients: 1 Cup Butter- Softened; 1 Cup Sugar; 2 Eggs; 2 tsp Vanilla; ¼ tsp Salt; ½ tsp Baking Powder; 3 Cups Flour

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These tasty and festive cookies are perfect for Halloween! These slice and bake sugar cookies are as delicious and easy as they are colorful!

A stack of black and orange Halloween pinwheel cookies on a white plate.

Why we love these cookies-

Halloween is one of our favorite holidays! My youngest starts planning for next Halloween on November 1st! We love dressing up and I love making tasty treats!

These cookies are great because they are a simple sugar cookie dough that can be made with pantry staples. The dough can also be made in advance so that they can be sliced and baked whenever you are ready!

A pile of black and orange pinwheel cookies on a glass cake stand.

Tips for success-

Use gel food coloring– Since these cookies are heavily colored it is important to use gel food coloring! Gel food coloring is more concentrated so you can use less and it won’t alter the taste of the cookies.

Give the dough plenty of time to chill– The rolled dough needs to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, you don’t want to rush this or the cookies will expand when they bake. You can make the dough the night or even a couple of days before you want to bake them.

Roll the dough in sprinkles– For even more festive color you can roll the outside of your dough in sprinkles. If you choose to do this you’ll want to roll it before placing it in the fridge. Just place sprinkles on a flat surface and roll the rolled dough in it pressing gently for the sprinkles to stick.

The ingredients for Halloween pinwheel cookies on a marble counter top. Flour, sugar, vanilla, butter, eggs, baking soda, salt and black and orange food coloring

Here’s what you’ll need for these Halloween cookies-

1 Cup Butter- Softened
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
¼ tsp Salt
½ tsp Baking Powder
3 Cups Flour

a pile of halloween pinwheel cookies on a white plate with a mason jar full of milk behind them.

Here’s how to make these pinwheel cookies-

First in the bowl of an electric mixer cream together butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.

Add in eggs and vanilla and continue mixing until well incorporated

A collage of four pictures showing the making of cookie dough. In the first sugar and butter have been creamed in a metal bowl, in the second eggs have been added. In the third flour, salt and baking powder have been mixed and in the fourth the flour has been added to the butter mixture.

In a separate bowl whisk together flour, salt and baking powder.

Add the flour mixture into the butter mixture a little at a time mixing between additions, until all of the flour is incorporated.

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it in half.

Add about ¼ tsp orange gel food coloring to one half and knead until the color is evenly distributed.

Repeat with the other half of the dough, adding about ¼ tsp black gel food coloring.

Place black dough on a piece of parchment or wax paper and roll out into an approximately 9×15 rectangle. Place on a baking sheet and set aside.

Repeat with the orange dough rolling it out on parchment or wax paper.

a collage of four pictures showing how to make Halloween pinwheel cookies. In the first there are two balls of dough, one is orange and one is black. In the second the black dough has been rolled out into a rectangle, in the second the orange dough has been rolled out and placed on the black, in the fourth the edges have been trimmed to make a rectangle.

Keeping the dough on the parchment place it on top of the black dough and place the baking sheet in the refrigerator for 15-20 minutes.

Remove dough from the refrigerator. Carefully remove the orange dough from the parchment paper and lay it on top of the black dough lining up the edges as best as possible.

Using a sharp knife trim the edges of the dough to make a rectangle.

Starting with the shorter end of the rectangle carefully roll up the dough you can use the parchment paper to help. Put gentle pressure on the dough as you roll it so that it sticks together nicely.

Wrap the rolled dough in parchment or wax paper and refrigerate at least 2 hours. To help the dough keep it’s round shape you can cut a paper towel roll length wise and wrap it around the wax paper.

When ready to bake-

Preheat your oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper

Unwrap the dough and place on a cutting board.

Using a sharp knife slice dough into ¼ inch slices.

Place the slices on your lined baking sheet about an inch apart. These cookies don’t spread much while baking.

a collage showing the steps for making pinwheel cookies. The first shows cookie dough rolled into a log shape, the second shows swirl from the end of the dough log, In the next one the dough has been sliced and in the fourth the slices on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake for 8-10 minutes. Do not overbake these. Since they are colored you can’t see them turning golden but overbaking will result in a dry cookie. You want them to look set, but not completely dry.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 1-2 minutes before moving from baking sheet to a metal cooling rack.

Store the cookies in an airtight container.