Festive Pinwheel Cookies!

A little while back I bought a bag of fresh cranberries. I was very excited to try to do something with them (other than decorate). This is one of my trials.

Cranberry-Orange Pinwheels
From BH&G's The Ultimate Cookie Book
1 cup cranberries
1 cup pecans
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp finely shredded orange peel
3 cups all-purpose flour

1. For filling, in a blender or food processor combine cranberries, pecans, and brown sugar. Cover and blend or process until cranberries and nuts are very finely chopped. Set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in eggs and orange peel until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can. Stir in any remaining flour. Divide dough in half. Cover and chill dough 1 hour or until easy to handle.
3. Roll half of the dough between two pieces of waxed paper into a 10-inch square. Spread half of the filling over square, leaving a 1/2-inch border along the edges. Roll up dough. Moisten edges and pinch to seal. Wrap log in plastic wrap or waxed paper. Repeat with remaining dough and filling. Chill about 4 hours or until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 375F. Using a sharp knife, cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices. Place slices 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are light brown. Let stand for 1 minute on cookie sheet. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Makes about 60 cookies.

The ingredients.

The creamed sugar with eggs and orange peel. That's a lot of orange peel... and it smells good.

The chopped up cranberry mix. It's so red and pretty.

The rolled-out dough. From my previous failed attempts (or at least very difficult attempts) at rolling out cookie dough I've learned that having the dough cold enough is very important. I usually get impatient and try to rush into rolling before the dough is thoroughly chilled. That is a big mistake. It will only result in dough that sticks to everything you don't want it to. And if you have to roll up the dough like this for a pinwheel, you might as well forget it; the dough will fall apart and be completely unmanageable if it's too warm. Patience is the key.

I've mentioned my inability to divide things evenly many times before. This time I thought I'd measure things out so I'd get the two logs even. While it was a good thought, I still ended up with one of the logs having noticeably more filling. I'm not sure how it happened but I guess I'm gifted that way.

That is some very pretty filling!

Log. After getting it all rolled up, I wasn't real sure what to do with the ends that didn't have filling. I finally just decided to fold it in like a package.

Slices. If you look closely you'll notice that this sheet of cookies came from the log with less filling; the next shot shows a cookie from the other log. I guess that gives people options.

The final product: yummy, festive cookies. The dough is light and has a wonderful citrus flavor. The filling is sweet and a little nutty and completely delicious. The pairing make for a sweet and spunky holiday treat.