When Cookies Go Wrong…Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Today is Dr. Seuss’s birthday and to celebrate I tried baking these swirl cookies I found on Pinterest because they totally remind me of the book Oh, the Places You’ll Go!  Alas, recipes don’t always go as planned.  So this was the picture I saw that inspired me:

Here’s the pin if you want to try the recipe.  So that’s how it’s supposed to look and this is how my cookies turned out:

So I think my problem was that it says to use the Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie mix which I didn’t have.  So I went hunting for sugar cookie recipes.  I ended up using this Wilton cookie recipe and didn’t notice until I got to almost the last step where it says the dough will be very stiff.  So of course that doesn’t lend itself to rolling it out and then swirling it.  I really had to squish the dough together and then it didn’t bake evenly so I ended up flattening them out.  So next time I plan on trying a different sugar cookie recipe.  Suggestions are welcome!

The other problem was getting the dough the proper color without overworking the dough.  I used the neon colored food coloring like the recipe called for but getting it to blend nicely was hard.  A friend did just suggest that if you have a stand mixer it would be easier but I was mashing it in by hand.

Anyhow, they didn’t turn out how they were supposed to look but my daughter thought they were tasty.  I had planned to send her to school with these tomorrow to celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday but guess I will end up keeping them at home for the kids and try again next year.