Really Easy Pinwheel Cookies is a quick 2-ingredient version of the original pinwheel cookies. Pastry dough with chocolate filling instead of dough.
Really Easy Pinwheel Cookies are great anytime. Just pull up a chair with your favorite hot drink or milk and enjoy!
It is believed that the original pinwheel cookie came out sometime in the 1930s, during the depression. They were one type of cookie called “ice box cookies”, which were cookies that required chilling.
An ice box was a non-electric type of refrigerator. In fact, my grandmother always called her electric refrigerator an ice box.
Regular pinwheel cookies use sugar dough, half of which is mixed with cocoa. The plain dough is rolled out into a rectangle and then the dough with cocoa is place on top of it. Then, they are rolled out into a log, sliced and baked.
Really Easy Pinwheel Cookies is a quick and simple substitute recipe to make anytime!
Just use a good sweet pie dough, roll out, cover with a good chocolate spread, roll, slice, and bake! That’s all there is to it!
Want to make it dairy free? Just use sweet dairy free pie dough!!
If I can bake, anyone can
I am the type of person who, when she sees something that looks easy to create, will try to do just that. And I will continue to try and try (sometimes spending more on the attempt than the item would cost to buy ready-made), until I either succeed or decide that I have had enough and have at least given it my best effort.
So, after a visit to a bakery one day, I decided to try my hand at some baking, starting with chocolate chip cookies.
Happily, they always came out tasting good (unless I forgot them in the oven and they burned), but I could never get them to come out the same way twice in a row. Sometimes they were more cakey, sometimes they were flat, and every once in a while they would even come out just right. But they never came out the same way twice in a row. Ever. However, I never gave up.
My next attempt at baking was birthday cakes. I started with a 9″x13″ pan and those were fine, but I wanted to present my kids with birthday cakes that were made of layers. So, I bought the round pans and found a good recipe.
Birthday after birthday, the cakes came out tasting terrific, but they were always lopsided. I was told to use a knife to level them off, but I would’ve had to cut off so much, I would’ve been left with very short cake, which wouldn’t have done at all. So, I just worked with what I had and used frosting to fill in the valleys as best as I could.
During this period of time, I learned a very valuable lesson. DO NOT put on frosting if your cake hasn’t cooled because the frosting will get runny. This is especially true if your cake is not level because everything on the top of your cake will slide…right…off.
Another issue I had while learning to bake cakes is that it is not like cooking. With cooking, like a lot of people, I can eyeball ingredients and the dishes will still come out good. Not so with baking. Most baking requires measuring, but like with measuring actual measuring spoons and cups.
One day, my daughter Elissa came into the kitchen while I was preparing some recipe or other (I had moved on to try other things besides just chocolate chip cookies and birthday cakes). Elissa is very competent when it comes to following directions when cooking and baking, and was horrified.
“You are NOT really measuring oil in the palm of your hand, are you?!”
I didn’t see what the problem was, and told her that I couldn’t be bothered to stop what I was doing to get the measuring spoons, and I certainly know what a tablespoon of oil should look like.
“You can’t bake the way you cook,” she informed me.
Finally, I decided OK, I am going to follow directions. I will measure properly and that will be it. So, I did.
The cake came out tasting really good, but it was really heavy.
I complained to Elissa.
“I followed the directions and even measured and look at it!”
We decided that she would try the recipe to see what was wrong (she is great at following exact measurements and was tired of my complaining).
I read the instructions to her (off a very highly reviewed recipe) and was very gratified when it came out heavy for her too. Ha!
She insisted we go over the instructions again and she also wanted to see the original recipe. I gladly showed her.
“You doubled the recipe,” she accused me. “Why?”
“Because I wanted a higher cake.”
“That is NOT considered following directions. The recipe is for two pans and you put double in each pan, so it couldn’t rise.”
Oh. I took back my “ha” and never did that again.
After a while, I finally gave in. Now, I follow directions and measure properly. Well, mostly.
Not surprising, everything I bake comes out as it should (of course…as long as I don’t forget to remove from the oven…!).
Baking Pantry Essentials
I never know when someone in my family is going to want a dessert at home, to bring to a friend’s house, or need for an event, so I like to make sure I can bake anything with very short notice. To that end, I keep a variety of supplies and ingredients in the house that will allow me to do just that.
I can’t tell you how many times I was glad to have whatever I needed within reach for the last-minute visitor or for when one of my kids went to a friend or had a school event without much prior notice.
I have slowly collected things over the years as I needed them (or if I found a good sale) and like to keep more than one of the smaller items, in case I don’t want to wash dishes in the middle of baking.
My basic “equipment” includes:
- a stand mixer, which I use mostly for dough and, sometimes whipping
- a hand mixer (for things that aren’t dough and I don’t want to mix manually)
- a small scale
- different sizes and shapes of baking pans, including loaf pans
- mixing bowls (or just large bowls—I have plastic, glass, and metal)
- cookie sheets
- pie dishes
- dry measuring cups
- liquid measuring cups
- whisks
- rubber spatulas (really good for when you don’t want to leave anything in the bowl)
- rolling pins
- a baking mat for rolling out dough
- baking strips
- a good supply of baking (or parchment) paper (also round for layer cakes)
I can certainly get by without a lot of the above, but it makes baking so much simpler when I just have whatever I need at my fingertips.
In addition to the equipment, there are the baking ingredients that I try to keep in the house at all times:
- flour
- white granulated sugar
- brown sugar (light/dark—I usually keep dark)
- confectioners sugar (powdered sugar)
- salt
- baking powder
- baking soda
- cocoa powder
- ground cinnamon
- ground nutmeg
- ground ginger
- ground cloves
- baking chocolate
- chocolate chips
- instant dry yeast
- vanilla and/or vanilla sugar
- cooking oil/cooking spray
- margarine or butter
- eggs
- honey
- instant coffee
- various extracts (real or imitation)
I also make sure that I have the following on hand to be able to make a variety of fillings, frostings, and toppings:
- whipping cream
- powdered pudding mix
- powdered sugar
- a good chocolate spread
Then, there is the following to make last-minute quick desserts:
- packaged pie dough or ready-made pie crusts
- puff pastry dough
Lastly, it’s not a bad idea to keep fun toppings, such as chopped walnuts, raisins, and the oh-so-important container of sprinkles.
Want another really easy cookie recipe? Try Really Easy Sugar Cookies.
Really Easy Pinwheel Cookies
Easy to make 2-ingredient pinwheel cookes
Ingredients
- Approximately 1 pound of chilled ready-made pie dough, preferably sweet (* see notes)
- quality (not thin) chocolate spread, at least 8 ounces or date spread
Instructions
- Roll out pie crust dough (rectangle shape, approx 1/8" thick - a little more is fine) onto a mat or table where it won't stick and won't slide around either.
- Generously spread on chocolate or date spread to cover the entire sheet of dough.
- Roll dough into a log from the longest side, so the log will be longer than if you rolled the other way.
- Slice the width into 1/4" - 1/3" rings (thicker is fine if you like, however the thicker the rings, the thicker the cookies, and the less cookies you will have).
- Lay flat on a greased or lined cookie sheet, leaving around 1/2" space between each of the cookies.
- Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until the dough is no longer soft to the touch.
Notes
* There is no standard for the size of the rolled out pie dough or the amount of chocolate you might want to spread. The longer your roll, the more cookies you will have and the same for cutting the width/thickenss of the rings you cut from the log. If you prefer less, but larger cookies, roll the sheet of dough from the shorter side. This will give you more swirls and larger cookies, but less of them.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
36Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 74Total Fat: 3gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 52mgCarbohydrates: 11gFiber: 1gSugar: 4gProtein: 1g