11 Pinwheel Cookie Recipes to Make This Christmas (2024)

FAQs

How long before Christmas should you make Christmas cookies? ›

As for the cookies—made for cookie swaps, church potlucks, household snacking, and Santa's plate—there is one little cheat: make now, freeze for later. You'll find that most of your favorite Christmas cookie recipes can be made anywhere from a month to six months before the 25th of December.

Decorate Later

If possible, bake the cookies, freeze them, then decorate them after they have been thawed. When you're ready to decorate your thawed cookies, make it a festive family activity with our guide to decorating Christmas cookies with kids.

With sharp knife, cut the dough diagonally from each corner to within 1/2-inch of center of each square. Sprinkle about 1 teaspoon colored sugar over each square. Fold alternate corners of the square to the center to form pinwheel, overlapping the dough at the center pushing down gently to seal in center.

Pinwheel cookies are similar to a shortbread, but traditionally include two layers of dough rolled and sliced to create a neat pinwheel design. While vanilla and chocolate are a classic pairing, the cocoa powder can be substituted for a few drops of food coloring to create a different holiday twist.

Shortbread and spritz cookies are longer-lasting cookies, which means they are perfect for holidays when there is some competition on the table. After all, Christmas in many homes is celebrated with a variety of dishes and sweet treats.

The USDA website says that generally, cookies can be stored at room temperature for two to three weeks or refrigerated for two months. If you find yourself with more cookies than you can eat in that time frame, consider putting the baked cookies in a sealed container in the freezer.

While cookies can last in the fridge for two weeks, eating them sooner is better. (We recommend storing a few in the refrigerator for eating in a few days and freezing the rest if eating more than four days after baking.)

As a general rule of thumb, 'drop cookies,' which include oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, and 'cut-out cookies,' such as gingerbread and sugar cookies, are freezer-friendly.

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Nabisco makes a similar type of cookie sold nationally, called Pinwheels, but believe me, they aren't nearly as good: the chocolate's different (milk vs. Mallomars' semi-sweet), the marshmallow is different, the cookie is different.

How do you get pinwheels to stick? ›

A sticky spread: Typically, pinwheels are held together with cream cheese, but anything similar (like hummus or nut butter) can be used. Deli Meat: Pinwheels usually include some kind of deli meat (turkey, chicken, ham, salami, etc.), but that can also be replaced with thinly-sliced veggies.

Pinwheels have been around for a very long time. The first documented history of a “whirligig” was in China in 400 B.C. The pinwheel is significant in Chinese culture where its symbolism is “to turn ones luck around”. It is especially used at Chinese New Year celebrations for good luck and fortune.

“Homemade sugar cookies should ideally be consumed within two to three days, but can last up to one week at room temperature if stored properly in an air-tight container in a dry, cool place,” Mok says.

The key to keeping cookies fresh and soft is to seal them in an airtight container, like a resealable freezer bag. And here's a nifty little trick: add a piece of bread to the bag.

Although I've tested them for longer and the batches I've tried seem fine for up to 4 weeks, my general rule of thumb is up to 2 weeks.