Purple Raider Pinwheel Cookies

Go Mount! Tonight Becky and I's alma mater, The University of Mount Union, will competing in the Stagg Bowl, the NCAA D-III Bowl Game. We both have fond memories of our college days and Becky & I still love to go back to football games. These pinwheel cookies are the purple and white of our school colors, but can be adapted for anyone's school colors. They took a little bit of work, but it is worth it for tailgating or for a Bowl Game party.

Recipe from Just a Taste.

Ingredients: 
-3 cups all-purpose flour
-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
-1 1/3 cups sugar
-2 large eggs
-2 teaspoons vanilla extract
-Red and blue food coloring

In a medium bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and salt until combined. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and continue beating until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, then add the vanilla.

Slowly add in the flour mixture and beat just until combined. Remove the dough and separate it into two equal pieces. Shape one piece of the dough into an 8-inch square, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge.

Return the remaining piece of dough to the stand mixer bowl, add in the food coloring two drops of blue/two drops of red at a time, mixing with a wooden spoon in between, until the desired purple is reached (I used nine drops of red and nine drops of blue). Shape the purple dough into an 8-inch square, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge.

Remove the dough from the fridge and cut each square in half, wrap half of each color of dough in plastic wrap and return it to the fridge. Place the white dough in between two pieces of wax paper and roll it into a rectangle about 1/8-inch thick. Do the same with the purple dough. You want these rectangles to be even! If you have to trim the dough a little with a knife, that's fine!

Peel the top layer of wax paper off of the white dough and  peel the wax paper off one side of the purple dough, transfer the purple dough on top of the white dough. Very lightly roll the two layers together so that they stick. Starting at the short end of the rectangle, roll the dough tightly into a log. Repeat above steps with the dough that you put back in the fridge. If you want the spiral to be the opposite of the other roll, stack the white dough on top of the purple. This will change the spiral. Wrap the logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate them for 2-3 hours.

Remove the dough from the fridge and slice each log to make about 24 cookies each. Bake at 350 for 11-13 minutes until golden. Transfer to a wire rack or paper towels to cool. Serve at your tailgating or Stagg Bowl party!!

The overall active time on this recipe wasn't too much, it was mainly down time. For the small amount of effort that these took I think the finished presentation was totally worth it. I will be making these again! Go Mount Union Purple Raiders!