'Tis the season cookies, 7

These cookies are a little more trouble to make than the ones I put up last year.  It has been several years since I made them and I noticed this time that the chocolate didn’t taste as strong or as flavorful as I would like.   If you want a stronger chocolate bite I would recommend 1 ½ cubes of melted unsweetened chocolate instead of just one cube or perhaps even some chocolate extract.  The cookies look festive and that is a plus.   The downside is you have to roll the two pieces of dough carefully so that you get two layers of colors and not a mix that looks all one color like well used play dough .   A variation of this type of cookie is to use peppermint flavoring and red flood coloring in place of the chocolate.  Roll the two colors separately into multiple small “snakelike” tubes, twist pieces together to form candy cane shapes.   Definitely more work and as I have said before I am basically lazy so the pinwheels are just fine. 

Chocolate Pinwheels*

½ cup soft butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

Cream together.  Add:

1 ½ cup flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Mix until the dough is stiff and pulls from the side of the bowl.  [I use a wooden spoon and my hands to mix the dough many people prefer to use a heavy-duty mixer like a Kitchen Aid.]

Melt in a double boiler or in a single pan at very low heat
1 oz (1 square) unsweetened baking chocolate

Divide the dough into two equal parts.  Add the cooled, melted chocolate to one section.  Chill both parts until firm enough to roll out.

Roll between waxed paper or plastic wrap.  I roll both pieces together at once rather than trying to make equal sized rectangles and pressing together afterwards but that is a personal preference.  Once the light and dark pieces are rolled out and pressed together form into a jellyroll shape.  Wrap in plastic wrap and foil. Chill over night.  When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees F, cut the roll into approximately 1/8 inch slices and bake on ungreased cookie sheets for 10 to 12 minutes.  Makes about 3 to 4 dozen cookies.  These cookies can be frozen and keep well in a container. 

 

 
PS  I make a lot of cookies and my cookie sheets are old, well used, well loved and look the part!    I’m not apologizing.

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* From:  Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, volume 3, page 434