Date Nut Pinwheel Cookies

Dates and pecans swirl inside a tender brown sugar cookie dough. Pretty and decadently sweet cookies for the holidays or any sweet occasion!

Date-lovers rejoice at this soft, buttery, cake-like dough filled with tender, sweet dates and studded with walnuts to create lovely, delicious, satisfying cookies. And the whimsical pinwheel that results from rolling the filling in the dough is so much fun and easy to make.

Dates are one of those things that go on the persnickety list for a lot of people I know, along with spinach, cilantro, liver, anchovies, black licorice - each one of us could create our own personal list. But did you know that devout Muslims often break the fast at the end of each long Ramadan day of fasting by sucking on a date. They claim it wakes up the senses and gets the eating and digestive mechanisms going!

What would you choose instead of dates to put as the pinwheeled filling in the center of a soft buttery dough? Certainly not liver. Perhaps chocolate? Hazelnut praline? Cream cheese filling? A good case could be made for each but I think I will stick with the dates in this family heirloom cookie, just as great Aunt Nell did. She knew a fine cookie when she ate one!

For Date Filling:

1 pound pitted dates (or 3/4 pound dates and 1/4 pound dried cranberries)

1/2 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup water

1 cup chopped pecans

For Cookie Dough:

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup soft butter

2 cups brown sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

-For Date Filling-

-Place dates, brown sugar and water in a medium saucepan. Stir and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cover the pot and reduce temperature to medium low. keeping mixture at a slow boil. Let mixture cook about 20 minutes or until the dates are softened and can easily be mashed. Stir occasionally and add a bit more water if mixture begins to stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat but keep covered and allow date mixture to cool completely. Place mixture into food processor and blend about 1 minute until smooth. Stir in the pecans.

For Cookie Dough-

-In large bowl of mixer, beat shortening, butter and brown sugar together until well beaten. Add eggs and vanilla and beat until smooth and creamy. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg along with 2 cups of the flour and beat together until smooth. Stir in the remaining 2 cups flour and mix until a thick dough results, about the consistency of sugar cookie dough. Cover and chill dough for 15 minutes for easier rolling.

-Divide the cookie dough into 3 even sections. On a piece of parchment paper, lightly floured, roll out 1/3 of the dough at a time to a 7 X 12 inch rectangle, 1/4 inch thick. Spread the surface of the dough with 1/3 of the date filling, spreading the filling to the edges with a spatula or knife. Don’t worry if it isn’t perfectly evenly spread, just do the best you can.

-Starting from the 12 inch edge, tightly lift and roll the dough over the filling, using the parchment paper to help you lift and roll. Wrap any remaining parchment paper around the rolled dough pushing gently to create a uniform shaped a log. Continue with the other 2 sections of cookie dough and date filling. Place parchment wrapped cookie rolls to chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours or longer.

-Remove the dough from the fridge and peel off the parchment paper. With a sharp knife, cut the roll into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch slices depending on how crisp you like your cookies. The thinner the crisper. If you want a bit of chew to them, cut them wider. Place slices on a parchment lined or oil sprayed cookie sheet.

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cookie sheet in the oven and bake cookies for 15 minutes until there is just a touch of brown on the top and the edges are golden. Remove from oven and let sit on sheet for 5 minutes. With a spatula remove them to a cooling rack to cool completely. Makes about 36 cookies.

Prepare cooked and mashed date filling and brown sugar cookie dough.

Roll out 1/3 of the cookie dough to a rectangle, 1/4 inch thick.

Spread 1/3 of the date/nut mixture over the surface of the dough rectangle.

Starting at long edge of dough roll the dough over the date filling.

Cut cookie log into 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch wide sections.

Place cookie slices on a parchment lined or cooking sprayed baking sheet.

Bake until just touched with brown on the tops and the edges are golden.

PERSNICKETY NOTES:

**Cranberries with the dates work nicely for the filling. I often use 3/4 pounds of dates and 1/4 pound of dried cranberries to bring a bit more tartness to a very sweet cookie.

**You can really use any type of nut you prefer to add to the filling. Pecans are soft and sweet, but if you want to cut down on the sweetness a bit, try using almonds or walnuts or even salted pistachios for the sweet/salty contrast that we love.

**Be careful not to over-bake as your cookies will be too hard but don’t under-bake either or the cookies will sink a bit and be doughy in the centers. Just watch for the touch of brown on the tops of the cookies before removing from the oven as bake times vary depending on your oven.