257 – Pinwheel Cookies, Chocolate and Vanilla Swirls / بسكويت الشوكولاته والفانيليا

Ingredients :

• 1/2 cup butter (soft, at room temperature)
• 1/2 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• A pinch of salt
• 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions :

Step 1: Making the Main Dough
1- Using a mixer with a flat spatula, cream the butter by mixing it on mediuam speead. The butter has to be soft. Once the butter is creamy scrape the sides of the mixing bowl. If you do not have a stand mixer, you could use an egg beater instead.
2- Continue mixing the butter on medium speed and add the sugar little by little. Mix until the sugar and butter become very fluffy.
3- Add 1 egg yolk, vanilla extract, pinch of salt, and baking powder to the sugar-butter mixture. Mix well on medium speed until all ingredients are well integrated.
4- Add the milk and mix.
5- Sift the flour on top the buttery mixture. Mix on medium speed until all the flour is well incorporated in the buttery mixture. You will end up with a very soft dough.
6- Split the dough into 2 parts. One part is going to be the vanilla part, and the second part we will use to add the chocolate ingredients to it.
Step 2: Making the Chocolate Dough
1- In a small bowl, place the milk and butter, microwave them for 30 seconds until the butter melts.
2- Add the unsweetened cocoa powder to the milk/butter mixture, and mix well.
3- Add the chocolate mixture to half of the vanilla dough that we have prepared earlier. Mix with the stand mixer until well integrated. You will end up having a smooth chocolate dough.
Step 3: Rolling the Cookies
1- Now we have 2 types of dough: vanilla and chocolate. Let’s roll the cookies!
2- Place 2 sheets of wax paper. Place the vanilla dough on one of the sheets of wax paper, and the chocolate one on the other.
3- Roll the dough balls, using a rolling pin, separately, into a square. (not too thick nor too thin).
4- Use a cookie cutter to make the edges of the sqaure straight. Remove the dough in the edges – we will use it later when rolling more cookies.
5- The vanilla dough square and the chocolate dough square should be roughly the same size.
6- Place the chocolate square on top of the vanilla square, they should line up. Remove the wax paper on top (that was used to roll the chocolate dough).
7- Using a rolling pin, roll the dough to flatten it a bit.
8- Gently, roll the dough, starting of the edge closest to you, as if you were rolling a carpet. Use your hands to shape it the tube.
9- Cover the dough tube with wax paper and place it in the freezer for 15 minutes before we cut it into cookies. If you want to store it, just cover it with an extra plastic bag, then freezer for up to 3 weeks.
Step 4: Cutting and Baking the Cookies
1- Preheat the oven to 325 F / 160 C.
2- Take the dough from the freezer, remove the wax paper. Using a sharp knife, cut 1/4 inch slices of cookies (not too thin, not too thick).
3- Place the cookies in a baking pan covered with parchment paper. Leave some space between the cookies as they will inflate when baking.
4- Bake for around 16 minutes. The cookies will have a beautiful light golden color – they should not become dark, otherwise, they are overcooked. Place the cookies in a cookie rack and let them cool down. As the cookies cool down they will become crunchy.