Pinwheel Shortbread Cookies

I LOVE shortbread cookies. These pinwheel ones look especially impressive!



Pinwheel Shortbread Cookies
recipe from my buttery fingers
-yields about 20 cookies

Vanilla Dough
160g plain flour
100g salted butter, cold, cut into 1cm cubes
50g sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg yolk

Chocolate Dough
140g plain flour
20g cocoa powder
100g salted butter, cold, cut into 1cm cubes
50g sugar
1 large egg yolk

1. Prepare the vanilla dough. Place flour and butter into mixing bowl, rub together until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs and the butter is completely worked into the flour. Add vanilla and egg yolk, mix together gently until a ball of dough forms. If it is too dry, sprinkle in a few drops of water.(Alternatively, place all the butter and flour food processor and pulse together until butter disappears, add the rest of the ingredients and pulse until a dough forms.)Wrap dough with cling film and chill whilst you prepare the chocolate dough.
2. Prepare the chocolate dough as above, adding the cocoa in with the flour.
3. Unwrap the vanilla dough and place into a large Ziploc bag. Roll out into a square with uniform thickness. Repeat with the chocolate dough.
4. Place the chocolate dough on top of the vanilla dough and roll up tightly, Swiss-roll style, but gently so you don't deform the log. Chill for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with parchment.
6. Remove dough from the fridge. Slice into generous 5mm (1/4 inch) slices and place them slightly apart on baking sheet.
7. Bake for 20 minutes until the biscuits are just turning pale golden around the edges, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. The biscuits will keep fresh for up to one week stored in an airtight tin.



Shortbread cookies would probably be even easier to make if you own a food processor or blender. Since I don't have neither, I had to opt for the more traditional and messier way of making them.

After the "labor intensive" rolling, my shortbread cookies still came out freckled(?)! Whaaa.. why? Actually, I didn't quite follow the recipe fully! I added espresso powder to the chocolate dough hoping to enhance the chocolate flavor. And I also reduced about 10 grams of sugar for each dough. I did it simply because I was trying to cut down the "unhealthy-ness." The two whole stick of butter frightens me! But yeah! Don't be foolish like me. Make your cookies the way it should and enjoy the maximum goodness of the shortbread cookies! Shortbread cookies are not meant for good health! :p

The result? You can't go wrong with anything that has this much butter!
-Taste: 3.5 stars out of 5- a little too bitter from the excessive espresso powder I used; could most definitely be fixed if I follow the amount of sugar stated in recipe; I liked the sweeter vanilla layer of the shortbread cookies a little more.
-Texture: 3.5 stars out of 5- could use less time in the oven; I like my shortbread cookies less crunchy; the interior still has the melt in your mouth quality.

COMING UP NEXT: CHOCOLATE MACARONS! : O