SCK Tries… Swirled Sugar Cookies

It’s another edition of SCK Tries where we try out a DIY to see how it works in real life and whether we’d recommend you give it a go. This time I’m trying swirled sugar cookies.

The Original DIY

I love sugar cookies but creating adorably decorated cookies can take the whole day. With this Sugar Swirl Cookies recipe by Tasty the design is built-in, so you simply slice and bake. Simple and oh so kawaii!

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Ingredients & Process

The ingredients are simple – 1 color of food coloring, a container of sprinkles, and sugar cookie dough. I made the dough from scratch, but this activity would work just as well with premade dough from the store. A vegan recipe for sugar cookie dough can be found on Let’s Make Something.

The original Tasty post includes a recipe, however I used Alton Brown’s Sugar Cookie recipe because I trust his recipes and 2. His website has a neat feature that lets you view the amounts in US Standard (think cups and teaspoons) or Metric (all by weight), so no need to do conversions. Also, I changed the color of the dough and sprinkles because I wanted a cheery warm-weather theme.

I used my mixer to blend in some Soft Gel Paste in Sky Blue. (If you add the color by hand, I recommend wearing gloves). I rolled each half of the dough between sheets of wax paper and used a simple trick to get straight edges without cutting – use the edge of the wax paper to fold the uneven edge back onto itself and then use the rolling pin to gently smooth it out.

I regret not chilling the dough after I rolled it out. When I went to flip the blue dough onto the white, it was too warm and soft and tore when I tried to reposition it. Nothing like rolling up your dough to hide your mistakes!

A tip about minimizing the mess of the sprinkles – I lined a shallow dish with 1 large piece of plastic wrap/cling film. Then I poured an entire bottle of sprinkles into the dish. Once you’ve rolled your dough in the sprinkles, you can simply wrap the plastic wrap around the dough, sprinkles and all, and chill.

I chose nonpareils because I love how cheery and colorful they are but also because they are so tiny they are a lot easier to cut through when slicing the dough. Don’t worry too much about perfectly covering your dough in sprinkles. I definitely had a few bald spots but they were completely unnoticeable once cut into cookies.

I did not chill for 4 hours, I got distracted and chilled for 2 hours, which was more than enough. I do wish that I had set a timer and rotated my dough in the fridge after 20 minutes or so, as my log ended up with a flat side. Once chilled, the cookies were simple to slice and bake.

They don’t spread, so you can position them fairly close together. Remember, your sugar cookies are done when they aren’t shiny anymore.

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The End Result

These swirled sugar cookies were absolutely darling and I would definitely make them again, especially for a party as they are a stunning addition to a dessert table. They would be very easy to alter for a specific holiday or theme, like Halloween or Valentine’s Day.

One last note – I had to trim the ends and instead of throwing that bit of dough away, I mixed it a few times in my hands and then rolled it out to make a few bonus cookies with a marble effect. Super cute!