Patriotic Pinwheels and Star Cookies

• Sift flour with baking powder and salt and set aside.
• Cream butter, sugar until light and fluffy.
• Add vanilla and one egg and beat well.
• Add the second egg and beat until thoroughly mixed.
• Slowly add in flour mixture until just blended on lowest speed.
• Divide the dough into thirds and place into bowls.
• Leave one bowl with white dough.
• In another bowl, add blue food coloring to the dough to reach the desired amount of color. Blend in with a rubber spatula by folding the dough over itself. I actually found it was easiest to use a rubber glove and mix the food coloring in with my hand.
• In the third bowl, add red food coloring and blend with rubber spatula until desired color is reached.
• Wrap doughs separately in plastic wrap and gently pat into small rectangles as it will be easier to roll out later. Chill in refrigerator for one hour.
• Remove from red dough from refrigerator and cut in half. Place one half back in refrigerator and roll the other on a well floured surface into a 6 X 10-inch rectangle with ¼-inch thickness.
• Repeat process with the white and blue doughs.
• Using two spatulas, gently lift white dough and place it onto the red dough or place it onto the blue depending how you want the color order to go.
• Again using the two spatulas, place blue dough onto the white (or red dough onto the white if you have reversed the order).
• Roll the three doughs out into a larger rectangle so that it is ¼-inch in thickness. Again, I cannot tell you what size mine was, but you’ll notice I had to be careful of it falling off the edge of the counter on the right.
• With a sharp knife, cut away the edges so that all four sides are even.
• At this point, it is easiest to divide the dough in half and roll as the logs could become really long.
• Roll dough up jelly-roll style from the long side.
• Wrap in plastic wrap and place on a cookie sheet to refrigerate for ½ hour.
• Preheat oven to 375ºF, and lightly butter two cookie sheets.
• Remove remaining dough halves from refrigerator and repeat rolling, stacking, and rolling process.
• Roll dough up jelly-roll style from the long side and wrap in plastic wrap to refrigerate for ½ hour.
• Remove chilled dough from refrigerator and unwrap.
• Slice ¼-inch thick and place on prepared cookie sheets about 2 inches apart as they will expand during baking.

To make the Star Cookies

• Gently place the scraps of dough together and roll on a floured surface to about 1/4-inch thick. Using a star cookie cutter, make the cookies and transfer to a lightly buttered baking sheet.
• Bake 10-12 minutes until cookies barely show a print when lightly pressed.
• Remove to wire racks to cool.