I think I've mentioned before that I'm not terribly talented at icing cookies. Don't get me wrong, I love iced cookies. They are usually very yummy and I think they are beautiful. But, I'm just not good at keeping a steady perfect line when piping around the exterior. I usually make a huge mess. When I'm not good at things, I just won't do them. So, without iced cookies on a goody tray, there don't tend to be a lot of colorful cookies. Undoubtedly, when I start pulling together my Christmas goody trays, I start realizing that that everything is brown and white. And, though I have not had any complaints thus far, I thought these Peppermint Marble Cookies would add the perfect splash of color for our holiday treat trays. And best of all... no decorating with icing! Yea!

Enjoy!

Peppermint Marble Cookies

1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/4 teaspoon red food color
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl, beat butter, powdered sugar and vanilla extract with electric mixer on medium speed, or mix with spoon. Stir in flour. Divide dough in half. Stir peppermint extract and food color into one half of dough. Divide each color of dough in half. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

2. Once the dough is chilled roll each of the doughs out to 1/4 inch thick rectangle.  Cut each rectangle in half.  Working with one half each of the white and red dough, place the white on top of the red and fold the dough in half and then in half again.  Flatten the dough, roll into a log,  fold the dough in half and flatten again.Roll the dough into a tight log, wrap with plastic and chill for at least two hours, or as many as three days.   Repeat with the remaining dough.

3.Cut into 1/4" slices. Place about 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. .

4. Bake cookies 7 to 9 minutes or until set. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack; cool.