Copycat Pillsbury Sliced Cookies are the upgraded homemade version of your favorite store-bought cookies. Soft, chewy, deep in butter flavor, and SO fun to make, these will surely impress a crowd! They are customizable and perfect for any occasion!
The Options Are Endless
What I love about these cookies is that you can make them as intricate or as simple as you'd like. You can create a shape on the inside, can do a pinwheel or tie dye design, can top the outside with any sprinkle of your choice, or you can leave the dough as it is... it's truly up to you. You can even add extracts like almond or mint to change up the taste to your liking!
Today, I'll be showing you how to make a pinwheel design because it's so versatile for any holiday or occasion and adds a SIMPLE flare to these. I'll walk through the step by step process on how to achieve the look, so do not worry.
The Dough
The dough is incredibly simple. It will take you a few minutes to whip up, but the derails matter. Here are my top recommendations to ensure that your cookies come out soft, buttery, and SUGARY as ever:
- Room Temperature Butter: You'll never stop hearing this from me. These cookies, even though they will have chill time, require room temperature butter for the best results. I promise, you'll thank me later when you taste these with room temperature butter. It makes such a difference in such a simple recipe. Butter is the star of the show in these cookies... let's make sure we do it justice! Simply leave your butter out for 1-2 hours before baking, depending on your climate. You want to be able to easily stick your finger into the butter without it fully breaking the butter stick apart. You should easily create an indent that holds. The butter shouldn't be too glossy or too slimy, but it will be SOFT!
- Measuring Flour: How you measure your flour can GREATLY impact your baking. This is such a simple recipe that some of the littler things actually mean so much! In this recipe, especially, make sure you spoon your flour into your measuring cup to make sure you do not overpack the flour. Use a knife to level off the little mountain of flour that rises above your measuring cup!
The Chill Time
The ONLY downside to these cookies is that they require some chilling time, meaning that you can't be eating them 25 minutes after you decide to make them. Need a cookie that will be ready in 25 minutes? Try my Gluten Free Brownie Cookies. Though the chill time is slightly annoying since I wish I could be shoving them in my mouth ASAP, the chill time is SO necessary for these cookies. The dough will be a MONSTER if you do not.
Depending on what you choose for the design directly impacts how long you'll need to chill the dough.
- Original Dough OR 1 Color: If you simply leave the dough as it is or only color the dough, you'll need a 30 minute-1 hour chill time in the fridge after making and/or coloring the dough. Then, you'll form the dough into the log before placing it in the freezer for at least 2 hours before slicing and baking.
- Pinwheel: If you are doing the pinwheel, which is what the official recipe walks you through, you'll need to chill your colors separately for 1 hour before rolling the colored dough into sheets. Then, you'll need to freeze the dough sheets for 10 minutes before rolling them into the log. Finally, you'll place the log in the freezer for at least 2 hours before slicing and baking.
- Tie Dye: If you are wanting to create a tie dye effect, you'll need to chill your separated, colored dough in the fridge for an hour. After the 1 hour chill time, you'll randomly place bursts of dough to create a large ball. You'll roll this to create one long sheet to help the colors to better disperse. Then, you'll roll or form the sheet into a log. Freeze the log for at least 2 hours before slicing and baking.
Food Coloring
I'd recommend using a gel food coloring for this dough so that the consistency of the dough doesn't change. I'd recommend Wilton, Americolor, or Chefmaster. If you don't have, don't want, or can't get gel food coloring, liquid would be fine! I'd add another Tablespoon of flour if you do use liquid, though!
Storing and Bake Ahead Info
These cookies are best stored at room temperature in an air-tight container for about 4-5 days. They will not be as chewy and soft after the first day or two. You can easily freeze the baked cookies. Let them sit at room temperature to thaw.... or eat them frozen... they are FABULOUS frozen!
These cookies are the GREATEST for baking ahead of time. You can keep the dough log in your freezer for MONTHS (about 3) before using. Take the dough out, let it sit for 20 minutes on the counter, and slice and bake to enjoy! I already have a Christmas log in my freezer to bake when the season comes around!
Other Cookie Recipes:
Print Copycat Pillsbury Sliced Cookies
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Chill Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes:
- Total Time: 1 hour, 35 minutes
- Yield: 28 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies, Sugar Cookies, Pillsbury
- Cuisine: American
Description
Copycat Pillsbury Sliced Cookies are the upgraded homemade version of your favorite store-bought cookies. Soft, chewy, deep in butter flavor, and SO fun to make, these will surely impress a crowd! They are customizable and perfect for any occasion!
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2 ¾ cups all purpose flour + ¼ cup for rolling
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- Sprinkles (optional)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric or stand mixer until smooth and creamy. This should take about 2-3 minutes. Mixture will be light in color.
- Add pure vanilla extract and large egg, mixing until fully combine. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure everything is fully incorporated.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing until everything is JUST combined. Try not to overmix since you’ll be working this dough a lot. Mixture should be soft and sticky.
- To create the pinwheel, divide the batter in half. You could dye one or both of the halves, but I chose to dye one orange and leave the other as is. Use a spoon or your hands to color the batter.
- The dough will likely be too sticky to wrap in plastic wrap, so cover each bowl of batter with plastic wrap or foil. Place the bowls of dough in the fridge for an hour.
- You will be making 2 (TWO) logs, as it is much easier to work with a smaller amount of dough at a time. Remove one bowl of batter from the fridge. On a clean, floured surface, roll HALF of the dough into a sheet about ⅛ of an inch thick. My rectangle was about 9×11 inches. Place the other half of the dough back in the fridge.
- Remove the OTHER color/bowl from the fridge. Repeat process of rolling half the dough into a ⅛ inch thick sheet. Try to get it to be as close in size to your first sheet as possible. Place the rest of the dough back in the fridge.
- If your dough sheets have become too sticky to work with, carefully wrap the sheets in plastic wrap, and place them in the freezer for 10 minutes. If they lose their shape slightly in this process, you will be able to easily fix it after the short time in the freezer.
- If you are able to work with the dough without it sticking to your floured hand, carefully place one sheet of dough on top of the other, working the dough to make sure their edges line up as closely as you can get them. You’ll want to form the dough into as even as a rectangle as possible for best swirl result.
- Grab the bottom layer of dough on the short end of the rectangle and roll the dough into a tight log. Try to work quickly and carefully, as you don’t want to rip the dough and ruin your pinwheel design.
- If you would like to add sprinkles around the outside, wrap the log and put in the freezer for 5 minutes. This ensures that you won’r tuin the shape of your log when rolling. You don’t want to leave it in the freezer for much longer or the sprinkles won’t stick to the outside. To add sprinkles, pour your sprinkle of choice onto a baking sheet in a straight, skinny line. Carefully roll the log around in the sprinkles. You may need to roll it for a while, add more sprinkles, or use your hands to fill in any gaps.
- Repeat the entire process (Steps 6-11) with remaining dough halves to create a second log.
- Wrap the logs in plastic wrap before placing in the freezer for at least 2 hours and up to 3 months.
- To bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Remove dough logs from the freezer. If the dough has been in the freezer for longer than 12 hours, let it sit at room temperature before slicing.
- Slice the dough log into about ½ inch thick pieces. Place the cookies on your baking sheets at least 2 inches apart, as these cookies spread.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes. Batter will look SLIGHTLY wet in the center. They should not be golden brown in color. These are SOFT cookies and may look slightly underdone to you if you aren’t used to it!
- Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. These cookies are so soft that if you move them off the sheet before 5 minutes, you will likely break them!
Keywords: Slice and Bake Cookies, Swirl Cookies, Pillsbury Cookies
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