Gluten-free Pinwheel Cookies

These are traditional. I think this is Grandma Olive's recipe, but it is at least her tradition. Make this dough twice, one vanilla and one chocolate and refrigerate them for 30 minutes. I'll admit I am pretty good at making beautiful spirals. It is a talent.

Make the vanilla dough, form into a ball, and refrigerate:

1 stick butter

3/4 c sugar (or 1/2)

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg

1  1/4 cup flour (plus a few more tablespoons for the vanilla dough- I used a gf flour mix, but 1/2 c sorghum, 1/2 c glutinous rice, and 1/4 c rice works. I think that one may not need so much xanthan gum. If you are using sorghum and potato starch it works to do 1 cup sorghum and about 3/4 cup potato, which is more than 1 1/4 cup, but better.) 

3/4 tsp xanthan gum

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

Cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the vanilla. Beat in the egg. Add the flour, xanthan gum, and baking powder and beat until incorporated. Form into a ball and put in the fridge until you need it. 

Make the chocolate dough by adding 3 tablespoons cocoa powder to the above recipe, form into a ball, and refrigerate.

After 30 minutes, roll out the doughs separately on mats or parchment into rectangles. Grandma apparently rolled these out in powdered sugar, but I use plain gf flour. My rectangles were about 18 inches by 10 inches (I am guessing). Carefully flop one dough onto the other. The parchment paper helps here. At this point I like to gently roll the top of the two doughs to help them stick together. 

Roll the dough into a log. I started at the 18 inch end and rolled it the 10 inches. After this I like to gently roll the log around to make it a little longer and skinnier and tighter. Cut it in half, admire the swirl, and wrap it up in the parchment to chill again before cutting. Slice them thin and bake at 350 about 10 minutes. Grandma Olive cut them thin and cooked then until crispy. Then she let people eat them sparingly. I like them crispy or soft and not so sparingly.

I like to freeze these before Christmas and then I can pull them out and have some quick Christmas cheer!