Pinwheel Cookies are the perfect cookie to share during the holidays! If you dream about the combination of peppermint and chocolate together during the holidays, these pretty swirled cookies will be your new favorite Christmas cookie.
Split dough into two bowls. (You can use an electric kitchen scale if you want to be precise, but eyeballing it is okay, too.)
In first bowl, add cocoa powder and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
In a microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate chips. Melt for 30 seconds, then stir. Continue melting in 15-second intervals until melted completely. Do not burn! While melted chocolate is still warm, add to chocolate dough until combined. Shape dough with hands into a roughly shaped rectangle on top of plastic wrap. Set aside.
In second bowl, add candy cane pieces, peppermint extract and melted white chocolate chips (repeat steps for melting chocolate chips above. White chocolate may melt faster.). Shape peppermint dough with hands into a roughly shaped rectangle on top of plastic wrap.
Place both sets of wrapped dough on a cookie sheet and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Roll out the dough
Remove dough from fridge and plastic wrap and place each set of dough onto a large sheet of wax paper. Place another sheet of wax paper on top of dough. Use a rolling pin to roll dough into a rectangle about an inch thick.
Repeat with second set of dough, trying to keep the shapes of the two as similar as possible. Without removing the waxed paper, layer the dough on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hour. Remove dough from the fridge and peel off the top layer of wax paper from each.
Make the logs
Invert the peppermint on top of the chocolate dough, aligning the two layers as closely as possible. Use your rolling pin to gently seal the two layers together by rolling over the top layer. Peel off the top layer of wax paper.
Start with the edge of the dough closest to you and roll the edge of the dough over so there is no gap in the center of the pinwheel. Use the wax paper to help continue rolling the dough into a tight cylinder. You want to try to keep the cylinder as compact as possible. Place rolled cylinder into a piece of plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
Bake
Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Prepare a baking sheet. (You make also line it with parchment or a silicone baking mat, or bake straight onto the baking sheet.)
Remove from fridge and use a sharp knife to cut pinwheels that are about ¾-inch thick. Place on baking sheets, spaced an inch apart, and bake for 12-14 minutes. Cookies will expand just a little bit.
Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 1 minute, then move them to a wire cooling rack (while cookies are still warm) to cool.