Pinwheel cookies

Every year when I make these cookies, I swear that I'm never going to make them again. Then I think about how pretty they are and how nice they look on a cookie tray, and I cave. These are very labor intense - it involves rolling out 9 pieces of dough almost paper thin, but I think it's worth it! The dough is a shortbread dough, so it's not overly sweet, and the cookies taste great with coffee or hot cocoa.

Pinwheel Cookies
Original Source: Unknown, my aunt gave me the recipe

Ingredients: (you will need to make 3 separate batches, so when you are gathering ingredients, keep in mind that you will need 3 times the amounts listed below):

• 1 ¼ cup flour
• ½ cup butter
• ½ tablespoon almond extract
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ tablespoon milk
• food coloring (red and green)
• pearl sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Stir together flour and sugar
• Cut in butter using either a stand mixer or pastry blender
• Stir in milk, almond extract and food coloring
• Form dough into a ball and knead until smooth (the dough is dry, it will take some work to incorporate all the ingredients into a smooth dough)
• Make 3 batches - red, green and white
• Chill dough 1 hour
• Separate each color of dough into 3rds for a total of 9 balls of dough
• Roll each ball of dough into an 8x10 sheet on wax paper
• Chill sheets of dough until firm
• Layer one sheet of each color, brushing lightly with milk in between layers
• Roll jellyroll style from the 10" end, rolling as tightly as possible
• Chill logs until firm (I put them in the freezer for about 30 minutes)
• Brush logs with beaten egg white, then roll in pearl sugar
• Slice the logs into ¼" slices
• Bake on parchment paper for 10 minutes