Though I thoroughly savored my culinary exploits in the year 2010, I look forward to more learning, cooking, and enjoying in 2011. Here are some of my anticipated achievements:
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Culinary Resolutions for 2011
Pumpkin Pie and the Perils of Watching Too Many Cooking Shows
Those are pie weights, not mini marshmallows!
This year Gary and I decided to politely turn down any Thanksgiving day invites and just do our own thing. Though I had wanted to have my Thanksgiving feast at a fine but unpretentious local restaurant, I quickly warmed to Gary’s suggestion of cooking up our own festive dinner.
We discussed entrée and side-dish options, and for desserts we concluded we would each make (or at least choose) a favorite or promising dessert, and there was no question that his was going to be of the pomaceous persuasion and mine was going to be pumpkin pumpkin pumpkin. I was eager to make a perfectly pumpkin something — though something other than my usual goof-proof cookies, breads, and muffins — and do it right this time. Continue reading »
Rallying for Roll-ups! Part 4: Pinwheel Cookies
Tableau: My imperfect but pleasantly spicy Cardamom Almond and Black Pepper Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies
Of all the planned rolled offerings on my HUGE menu (see Part 1 of this series), I became most obsessed with pinwheel cookies. I’ve never made them before, nor did I imagine I’d enjoy them more than my usual cookie favorites (I’m a chewy bar and drop cookie gal), but the need to serve something visually interesting sent me wildly searching the Internet for options.
I rejected Alton Brown’s Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies because I don’t like mint getting too cozy with my chocolate and some of the reviewers thought the cookies came out dry. Date Pinwheel Cookies from about.com intrigued me, but I wanted something with chocolate to balance the spice and fruitness I thought I’d have in my kreplach. The cookies in the photo of Gale Gands Pinwheel Cookie Dough on epicurious.com looked like winners, but reviewers didn’t think the difficult recipe warranted results worthy of their labor.
My pinwheel-cookie search also turned up tempting recipes for coconut pinwheels, peanut butter and chocolate pinwheels, fig pinwheels, and the I’ll-revisit-this-in-the-fall pumpkin pie pinwheels. But the search came to an abrupt halt when I stumbled upon Danielle E. Sucher’s food-blog entry describing her Cardamom Almond and Black Pepper Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies.
Search for pinwheel cookie recipe: Done.
The test-batch cookies tasted better than they looked. I had difficulty rolling the dough into equal rectangles (moving the fragile rectangles was tricky, too), then did not roll the rectangles together with an even hand, so, though pretty in a way, the finished cookies were far from geometrically correct swirls. I also thought the cookies were a little too hard (as I said, I like my cookies chewy) and I’d err on the side of a little too much almond extract and cardamom next time.
So, for the next batch: little more almond extract, little more cardamom, chill the dough a bit before rolling, careful picking up and moving rolled-out rectangles and be sure to place on a flat surface while I roll the second rectangle. (I had placed my first rectantle on a stovetop burner, which tore the dough a bit.) Also cut the cookies thicker, don’t bake them as long, or both.
The second batch had a slightly better taste and a much better texture, and the sweet-spicy balance was very pleasant. A winner! I’ll make these again — may my swirls look less . . er . . . psychedelic each time.
With roll-ups out of my life for the time being, I’ll bookmark this entertaining post on rugelach pinwheels.