The Big Cookie Project: Week 15

Oh, Cookie Blog how I have missed you!

While in Germany I was hoping to do some baking, but I looked high and low for chocolate chips and didn't find any. Now, I found a LOT of chocolate in Germany (quite a few bars made it home in our luggage and didn't melt) but didn't not find any chips. Since I missed almost 2 weeks of cookies, I was very excited to get back in to the swing of things and challenge myself a little more with this weeks recipe.

Sadly, the two words I would describe this week's cookies: A MESS

I am dubbing it the "Pinwheel Debacle" because of how sad they are. I shouldn't be too hard on the cookies, they are okay (in the loosest sense). By definition they are edible, but ugly as can be. I have taken a picture of what they SHOULD have looked like, and then what they DID look like. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to tell the difference.

I know during this year of cookie making all of them wouldn't be winners, and this is definitely one of the weeks. But that's okay, I'm not even 1/3 of the way there, so there's plenty of more time for winner and loser recipes. Here's the recipe just in case you are a good Pinwheel Cookie Maker:

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs plus 1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon coarse salt

2/3 cup whole milk

1/ tablespoon pure vanilla extract

5 cups flour

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:

1. Make dough: Put butter and sugar in the bowl. Add whole eggs and the salt. Mix in milk and vanilla. Add flour a little bit at a time, and mix until just combined

2. Remove half of the dough from the mixer; set aside. Add cocoa powder to remaining dough. Mix on low speed until combined.

3. Form spirals: Roll out remaining chocolate dough on a lightly flowered piece of parchment to 1/4 inch thick. Roll out remaining vanilla dough on a lightly floured piece of parchment paper to 1/2 inch thick. Trim doughs to two 9x6 inch rectangles. Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

4. Brush egg white onto top of each rectange, then place vanilla dough on top of chocolate dough. Starting at one long side, roll up dough. Gently pinch and press the edge of the roll to seal it. Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes.

5. Bake cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cut logs crosswise into 1/4 inch thick rounds. Space 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake until firm, but not browned, 12 to 15 minutes.

There you have it, I'm hoping that yours will turn out better than mine. If you happen to find a tupperware full of these mis-happen cookies on your doorstep, kindly take them in and eat them (I'm not sure if they'll get eaten at our house, they make me sad just looking at them).

PS. If you are a recent friend from Germany, please disregard this week of cookie making, some previous weeks of cookies are much better than this one :)