I'm not a super great baker, by any means. In fact, most of my baking projects turn out to be pretty terrible. I am happy to report, however, that I found a fun recipe for Patriotic Pinwheel Cookies, and with a few modifications, I was able to recreate these yummy, festive sugar cookies for my family.

You will need:

3 cups AP flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Red & Blue food coloring

Chef B was super excited to be my special helper for this fun project!

Step 1: In a medium sized bowl, mix together the dry ingredients. B was very precise when it came to correctly measuring out the dry ingredients.

Step 2: Place the butter in a large bowl, or stand mixer bowl. Make sure the butter is soft.

Step 3: Whip the butter with a mixer until the butter is light and fluffy.

Step 4: Beat the butter and suger together. Add eggs, 1 at a time, then add the vanilla extract.

Easy as could be... even for me, the reluctant baker!

Step 5: Incorporate the flour mixture, 1 cup at a time, into the wet ingredient mixture.

Step 6: Divide the dough into 3 equal parts. Keep one part handy to be used as the white colored dough. The other two parts will become the red and blue dough.

Step 7: Using your mixer, add drops of red food coloring to one of the seperated balls of dough. Add drops until you get the red color of your liking.

Step 8: Repeat step 7 with the third ball of dough, using blue food coloring.

Step 9: Cover and refrigerate each ball of dough for at least 30 minutes.

Step 10- Roll each color of cookie dough out, creating a thin layer. I used wax paper as I rolled them out, which helped with transferring the dough in the next step.

B enjoyed taste testing the cookie dough as I worked on the rest of the prep.

Step 11- After each ball of dough has been rolled flat on a piece of wax paper, carefully begin layering the colored dough. Red on the bottom, white in the middle, and blue on top. It won't matter too much if layers match up evenly, but if you're really particular about that stuff, just trim the edges off.

Step 12- Carefully and tightly, roll the layered dough, like you would a tortilla.

The rolled dough will look something like this.

Step 13- Wrap in wax paper, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate the rolled dough for four hours.

Step 14: When you're ready to bake the cookies, make even slice through the cookie dough. The dough looks totally cool with the red, white and blue spirals, right?

Some of my cookies were flat on the bottom. You can prevent this from happening by rolling the dough to even the shape back out, after refrigerating it.

Step 15: Place cookies into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 7-9 minutes. I used a Silpat under the cookies, to keep them from browning on the bottom.

I'm obviously proud... If I can get these cookies to turn out correctly, and still taste great, so can you!

Let the cookies cool on a baking rack. Serve warm, or let cool completely and store in an air tight bag or container for up to one week. You can also store them in the freezer for up to several weeks.

Finished product- festive, fun, and yummy!

And there you have it, folks! I'm serious when I say that most of my baking ventures fail miserably, so I am incredibly pleased that these cookies turned out as well as they did. My family sampled these cookies and loved them. If you're having a get together for the 4th, give these a try and wow your friends and family with this special treat! You could even use these for ice cream cookie sandwiches! Cool and sweet!

Give this recipe a try- it's easier than it seems & your friends/family will love them!