Date Nut Pinwheel Cookies

Happy Holidays everyone! I love love this time of year. I have baked so many cookies recently but recipe, I think is special. Dates, chocolate and pecans, well that is a great marriage.  They are amazing, my husband was so reluctant to try these cookies but once he tried it he loved it.  They are fairly easy to make but requires some finesse and patience. The first time I made them, they did not turn out so pretty, they were actually quite a big mess. Although they looked pretty bad, they were yummy and were eaten fairly quickly. I changed a couple steps, so if you follow my steps you should have no trouble making these cookies.They are worth it, very very good.

You’ll need about a cup and a half of pitted dates and chopped up roughly.

In a sauce pan, add the sugar, water and chocolate chips.

Over low to medium heat, melt the chocolate and cook the mixture, while continually stirring. Cook this until the chocolate melts and the mixture thickens and it looks like a paste, about 3 to 5 minutes.

This is already good if you were to eat it just like that, but control yourself. Add the chopped pecans to this.

Stir the pecans in the date mixture and set it aside.

Now we can start making the cookie dough. Start by adding the butter and sugar in the bowl of your mixer.

Mix it until it’s light and fluffy at which point you can add the eggs and vanilla extract.

Continue mixing this until, the eggs are well incorporated. Meanwhile in another bowl, mix the flour, salt and baking soda together. Add the flour mixture to the mixer bowl.

Mix in the flour well. The cookie dough will be somewhat soft.

This is why we need to let it cool in the fridge for an hour. Now if you want to speed up the process, I put mine in the freezer and kept it in the freezer for half hour. After I took it out of the freezer, I thought it would be easier if I rolled this out on a cookie sheet so I sprinkled some flour on a large cookie sheet and rolled out the cookie dough in a big square.

Well somewhat square. Pour the date mixture over this and spread it out evenly.

Now roll this up jelly roll style starting with the side farthest from you. Once you have a nice roll, you have to freeze or refrigerate it again for another 20 to 30 minutes. The first time I made these I did not refrigerate the roll and it was very difficult to cut it in slices, so that’s why they ended up looking not so pretty. After the roll has been refrigerated cut the dough into 1/4 inch slices using a serrated knife. I found that a serrated knife works best. Place the cookies on a baking sheet, leaving about an inch in between them.

Bake these puppies in a preheated oven at 350 F degrees for 12 minutes and you’re done. You will thank me, they are truly delicious.

Printable recipe:

Enjoy!