{Rainbow} Pinwheel Cookies

These cookies are so cute, and perfect for St. Patrick's Day! I've had this recipe for a couple of years (found HERE) but never actually made them until the other day. They were pretty easy and turned out so cool! Thanks Jamie S. from "What's Cooking" blog!

PINWHEEL COOKIES

3/4 cup butter, softened

3 ounces cream cheese
1 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
assorted colors of paste food coloring
24 lollipop sticks

DIRECTIONS

In a bowl cream butter, cream cheese and sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; beat until smooth.

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture. Stir till soft dough forms. Divide dough into fourths. Tint each with a different food color. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Working with half of each color, shape dough into 3/4 inch balls and for each cookie place 1 pink, 1 green, 1 blue and 1 orange ball together to make 1 large ball. Shape into a 12 inch long roll (like a snake), starting at one end, coil roll to make a 2 3/4 inch round cookie. Place cookies 3 inches apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Carefully insert lollipop sticks into bottoms of cookies.

Bake cookies for 8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool and store in an airtight container.

I just tried these cookies again, using my favorite sugar cookie recipe for the dough. They turned out really poofy, but still good.