Christmas Cookie Exchange: Pinwheels and Tassies

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

16 Dec 2007 11:58 PM

My daughter and I finished up the last of our major Christmas baking projects on Friday in anticipation of Saturday's big cookie exchange. It wasn't an official cookie exchange, rather a holiday party with a ton of sweet treats (I'm still peeling my 3-year-old off the ceiling). Still, we returned home with a tin full of cookies neither one of us had ever tried before PLUS this afternoon I got my hands on the recipes for two of our new favorites.

Take a look:

REFRIGERATOR PINWHEEL COOKIES

Ingredients:

1-1/2 cups sifted flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup cocoa (preferably Ghirardelli)

Directions:

Sift together flour, salt and baking soda.

Cream butter, sugar and egg. Add vanilla. Combine with dry ingredients. Divide dough into two parts. Mix cocoa into one part.

Divide dough into 4 equal parts, 2 of each color. Roll each portion between sheets of wax paper into a thin, 10-inch by 4-inch sheet. You will have 2 white sheets and 2 chocolate sheets. Freeze sheets at least 30 minutes.

Place a sheet of white dough on top of a sheet of cocoa dough and roll lengthwise into a log, jellyroll fashion. Repeat with the remaining white and cocoa sheets.

Wrap both logs in wax paper or foil and freeze. (**Note: You can make this dough several months ahead and bake as needed.**)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

While still frozen, slice logs into 1/8-inch or thinner slices and bake 10 to 15 minutes, until the white portion turns slightly off-white.

Makes 3 to 4 dozen pinwheels.

PECAN TASSIES

Ingredients:

Crust:

1/2 cup margarine, at room temperature

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 cups flour

Filling:

2 eggs, slightly beaten

1-1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 teaspoon melted butter

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1 teaspoon vanilla

Dash of salt

To make crust: Combine all ingredients. If mixture is too soft, refrigerate 30 minutes. Dough should be sticky.

Divide dough into fourths, and then divide each fourth into 12 pieces and roll into balls. (They should be slightly smaller than golf balls.) Place balls into a miniature muffin pan, molding the dough to the sides of the pan to make little cups.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

To make filling: Combine all ingredients. Fill each cup 1/2 to 3/4 full.

Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until crusts are brown. Pry loose with a paring knife and cool completely.

Makes 48 tassies.

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Hawaiian Style Christmas Cookies

Peanut Butter Lovers' Dream Cookie

Carob Christmas Cookies

Chinese Tea Cookies

Easy Holiday Cookie Bar Recipes

Cookie Exchange: Lebkuchen

Spicy Black Pepper Cookies

Cookie Exchange: Pignoli Cookies

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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