CHOCOLATE PINWHEELS

This is yet another recipe adapted from Toll House tried and true recipes (1939) by Ruth Wakefield Graves. The ingredients are modest and the execution simple though you have to be careful not to mess the layers of dough, resulting in a blurred line where vanilla meets chocolate and the other way round.

 

Children's Games by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1560)

 

Cookies named after pinwheel toys are still popular in the U.S., alongside 'bull's eye'. A pinwheel toy is actually slightly different from the cookie because the cookie is flat, reminding of a lollypop. Pinwheel toys originate from Southeastern Asia. During the nineteenth century, however, they also became popular in the U.S. They fell into the category of whirligigs (now, isn't this a lovely word?) alongside spinning tops. Spinning tops are century-old toys and were included in Pieter Brueghel the Elder's painting of children's games though pinwheels were not because they didn't exist back then. So we'll have to make do with Ruth Wakefield's cookies.

 

 

CHOCOLATE PINWHEELS

This version is slightly adapted from the original: I used more yolks, less butter and sugar, and I flavored the dough with vanilla.

 

I n g r e d i e n t s

3 cups flour

1tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

1 cup butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

3 yolks

1tsp vanilla extract

50g melted chocolate 

 

M e t h o d

1. Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt in a bowl. Beat the butter with the sugar, yolks and vanilla in another. Combine the mixtures into a soft dough. 2. Knead the melted chocolate into one half of the dough. Shape the halves into balls, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. 3. Roll both halves of the dough on parchment paper, then lay the brown layer on top of the white one. Fold them both into a log, gradually taking off the parchment paper. 4. Refrigerate the log for 30 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 180oC and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 5. Cut the folded dough into slices, arrange them on the baking sheets and bake until golden.