What's cooking Wednesday

My plan was, for the month of December, to put up a recipe each Wednesday for some sort of favourite Christmas baking of mine. Since I didn't get around to posting last Wednesday (or really much since then), I'll start with this week and try to keep it up until the end of the month. And then I have great plans for WCW 2008! Just wait and see!

Last Christmas I had these cookies at my friend Pam's house. My mum used to make these occasionally and I loved them. Turns out I still do. So, Pam handed me the recipe and I made them this week. They are delicious but a bit fussy. I generally stay away from fussy but at Christmas I make an exception. Often the fussiness is worth it and I have more patience for it at Christmas when you want something a little extra special.

Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1oz square semi-sweet chocolate
bit of milk

Okay, first thing to do is melt that chocolate and let it cool. If it is too hot, it will melt out the butter in the dough. It can cool while you mix everything else. One other note is that I doubled this recipe because I knew it wouldn't make as many as I wanted. The recipe above is the original amounts so you may want to double it, too.

Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in egg. Sift together dry ingredients (I didn't) and mix into creamed mixture. Divide dough in half. Mix cooled chocolate into one part. On parchment or waxed paper roll out each half. I rolled it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Trim each piece so that they are approximately the same size. Brush one layer with milk. Place the other layer on top. Using waxed paper like a sushi mat, roll the dough into a long log. Slice about 3/4 inch thick. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Two recipe notes: First, since I doubled the recipe I had to roll out each colour three times. Otherwise the dough would have been too thick. Second, I found it easier to place the white layer on top of the chocolate layer when I put them together because the chocolate is a little wetter. This meant that when I rolled it the chocolate didn't crack like the white layer did making it better to have the chocolate showing on the outside.