Easy Dreamwidth Cookies (Chocolate/Butterscotch Pinwheels)

(For all your release party needs.)
Photo of a plate of red-and-brown spiral cookies, cut from a roll

Ingredients

2 cups white flour (not packed)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup salted butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar (packed tight)
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
Red food coloring
Makes ~30-36 cookies

Supplies

2 mixing bowls
Spoon, whisk, fork, and/or mixer (something to mix dough)
Waxed paper or parchment paper
Rolling pin or large bottle
Sharp knife
Measuring cups and spoons
Non-stick spray or cooking oil
2 cookie sheets
oven and refrigerator
counter or table space

Instructions

1. Warm the butter/margarine to room temperature, until it's soft but not liquid. I suggest the approved fandom_wank method of putting it in your pocket and wandering off to ~~read fic~~ do something else for half an hour or so, but you can also nuke it in a microwave set to low or warm, or just leave it out on the counter for awhile. (1 cup margarine is one stick.)

2. Mix the margarine and brown sugar together thoroughly until it's a light, creamy texture. This is called "creaming", and you can only do it with butter and sugar. (I generally use a fork, but you can use an electric mixer or a whisk if you're willing to be patient about scraping the dough off the blades when it gets stuck.)

3. Add egg and vanilla, beat until well-mixed and light.

4. Gradually add flour and baking powder. As you add the flour, the dough will get stiffer and stiffer, but the flour *will* eventually go in, and you want the dough fairly stiff. Usually about 2/3 of the way through the flour I switch to working it in with my (well-washed or rubber-gloved) hands.

5. Divide dough roughly in half, put each half in a mixing bowl. (It's not the end of the world if it's not exact.)

6. Add cocoa powder to one half of dough, mix thoroughly until the dough is evenly brown. (If you want your spirals to be white and red instead of brown and red, skip this step and leave half of the dough plain.)

7. Add red food color to other half of dough. I used the kind with a dropper and ended up needing about 75 drops; you will need a lot. Add it a bit at a time and keep mixing until it's a nice even dark red. (I'd love to try this some day by adding strawberry flavor to the red side - probably about a tablespoon of strawberry extract or syrup, as well as the food color - but my roommate used up all the strawberry syrup on ice cream last week, so I haven't tested this yet.)

8. Cut two pieces of wax paper about a foot long. Lay one flat on the counter and sprinkle lightly with flour; rub a little flour on your rolling pin or bottle. Put one color of dough on the wax paper, and roll out flat until it's about 1/8 inch thick and a rectangle around 9X12 square. This is how you roll out a square: use a knife to cut two of the edges straight, put the excess around the patchy places on the other two sides, repeat until you've got vaugely the right shape.

9. Put the first color aside and repeat step 8 with the other color, re-flouring the rolling pin. (The brown will be less sticky and thicker than the other.)

10. Pick up the brown, still on wax paper, and flip it over on top of the red so they're sandwiched between the two sheets of paper. Peel the wax paper off the brown layer, and re-adjust it so it lines up fairly evenly with the red. Roll the two layers together into a roll by picking up the bottom layer of wax paper (along the long side), lifting it up and over, rolling the dough with it, peeling the paper back from the top, and then repeating until it's all rolled. The tighter this roll, the better, but if it's somewhat loose, or the dough cracks a little, it's not a disaster; as long as you mush it back into a roll shape the cookies will still turn out okay.

11. Wrap the roll in wax paper and put it in the fridge to chill for about fifteen minutes to half an hour. Meanwhile, put the oven on to preheat to 350 degrees F and oil or spray your cookie sheets.

12. When the dough is firm, take it out of the fridge, and unroll from the paper. Use a sharp knife (sharper the better) to slice cookies from the roll, about 1/4 inch thick. (The more even the width, the better.) If the cookies fall apart or get misshapen while you're cutting, you can just reshape them with your hands as you work. Put the sliced cookies on the sheets; you should get about 15-18 cookies per sheet, with some ragged leftovers from the ends of the roll.

13. Put the cookies in the oven for about 10-12 minutes. They will rise and get slightly darker, but not really visibly brown. Sit and eat your leftover cookie dough.

14. The finished cookies should be firm but moist, slightly brown on the bottom. They come out only mildly sweet, and are more like shortbread than cake, not soft but almost melting in the mouth. They keep very well, and also can be frozen.