Pinwheels

As you can see, my pinwheels aren't perfect. Honestly, I don't believe they ever will be, with any amount of practise (and who wants to eat that many pinwheels?). I like this recipe because it is easily made and stored in the fridge until needed.

We've been very fortunate in needing very little for Danny. Over the years, people have given us hand-me-down clothing, toys, books and honestly just about everything he could need. For new parents with an only child, we really lucked-out with the cast offs of generous friends. One family we know, with three boys have been sending us things that have barely even been played with. I suppose with three kids, they end up with more toys than they need-lucky for us. I didn't need to do any Christmas shopping! I'm serious, he's getting great stuff-cars on tracks and the whole bit. Last year it was a bouncy-car on springs he rode until he got too tall. It may not be new, but looking around our house you certainly wouldn't call Danny deprived. While I'm of the school of thought that knows children are usually more interested in the box than the toy that came in it, sometimes it is really nice to see him excited by something really special. We did splurge on his birthday present (twenty bucks! Oh my God, I never believed I'd spend twenty dollars on a toy tractor-I must be losing my mind) but only because Christmas was taken care of with freebies.

Cookies are a nice way to let people know how much we appreciate their generosity all year. Sure, I send pies and bread throughout the year, but the holidays are special and I like to make the sweets a bit unusual as well. The dough in this recipe is so versatile that by simply changing the flavourings (or omitting the chocolate) you can turn them into lemon cookies (zest and extract), chopped nut cookies, caraway seed cookies, and so on. You can sprinkle them with sugar, glaze them, frost them or whatever you please. The dough is very soft and really must be permitted to chill thoroughly, but after that, all you need is a sharp knife for slicing and you're on the way to the easiest, most delicious sugar-type cookies you've ever baked. Or I have baked, anyway.

Because the dough is so very soft, I really do advise rolling it out between sheets of waxed paper. I have a canvas cover for the rolling pin, but I thought better of it and went with waxed paper. It worked easily and the clean-up was as simple as tossing the paper out.

Adapted from my 1950 edition of The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook

You Will Need:

1/4 cup soft shortening (I used Crisco)

1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 oz melted chocolate (unsweetened)

Melt chocolate and set aside to cool.

Cream together the shortening, butter and sugar until light. Add the egg and mix well. Add the vanilla and cream. Mix again. Stir in the dry ingredients that have been sifted together. Mix well. Divide dough in half and work the cooled chocolate into one part. Gather up and wrap in waxed paper separately. Chill very well.

Roll out both flavours to the same size-approximately 9x12. Place the chocolate layer atop the plain layer (using the waxed paper to lift the soft dough). Very gently roll it out until quite thin (you be the judge on how thin is too thin). From the wide side, roll the dough up as best you can (as you can see, mine are never perfectly round) and wrap again in waxed paper. Return to the fridge to chill again until solid.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Either grease two baking sheets or line them with parchment or silicone pads. With a very sharp, thin knife, slice the cookies 1/8 inch thick. Leave about an inch between the cookies on the sheet as they spread a bit when baked.

Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on edges. The cookies won't look baked, but they should be just barely set. They will firm as they cool on racks.