Yield: about 6 dozen cookies
Recipe: 106/200
“Back to Baking”, pp. 29
During the holidays I made another recipe to go with the banana walnut bread: cinnamon pinwheel cookies. Although the recipe seemed simple enough and did not require uncommon ingredients, it was a complete disaster. Now I’m not sure if it’s because I have never done cookies with a filling that need to be rolled like that before, but it was a big fiasco. As I prepared the dough, it was not coming together at all. It was much too dry. I had to add some whipping cream to make sure that it would form a ball.
Then, the instruction for the filling was not as clear as I was expecting. Although the recipe says to divide the dough into two balls, then take one ball of dough and roll it out to the specified dimensions, the quantity of the ingredients for the filling seems to be halved. The recipes says to mix all the ingredients of the filling together and spread it out on the rolled dough. However, at this point we have only rolled out one. So either the prepared filling mixture has to be divided amongst the two rolled doughs, or the filling recipe needs to be doubled. When put in the oven, the cookies more than doubled in size and the filling was oozing out everywhere. It seems that I didn’t roll the filled dough tight enough.
Ingredients for cookie dough:
- 2 cups + 4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup + 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cool but not cold, cut in pieces
- 2 tablespoons whipping cream
Ingredients for filling:
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
I am assuming that the fact that I added whipping cream to make the dough come together made it too loose and that is why it expanded so much in the oven, because it was not the right consistency. But I really don’t see how I could have done otherwise. Also, if there was too much filling in between the layers of dough it is possible that did not help maintain the structure of the cookies. The cookies still taste good, but they are crunchy and not very pretty. I will definitely have to try this recipe again!
Directions:
- In a food processor, pulse together the flour, sugar and salt to combine. Note: alternatively, electric beaters could be used.
- Add the butter and pulse or blend until the dough is a rough, crumble texture.
- Add the whipping cream and pulse or blend until the dough comes together.
- Divide the dough into 2 pieces, wrap them in plastic wrap and set aside while preparing the filling. Note: do not refrigerate the dough.
- For the filling, stir all the ingredients together in a small bowl.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out one piece of the dough into an 8 by 12-inch rectangle. Spread the filling evenly over the entire surface of the dough. Roll up the cookie dough in the style of cinnamon rolls, starting at the longer side. Repeat with the second piece of dough. Wrap each roll of filled dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Unwrap and slice the cookie rolls into ¼ inch (6 mm) slices, and lay the cookies 1 inch apart on the baking trays,
- Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, until they barely start to turn golden. Cool the cookies completely on the trays before removing.
Valerie
Valerie 
