Apricot Pinwheels - Christmas Cookie #recipe by @LeslieBudewitz

 

LESLIE BUDEWITZ:  My mother was a fabulous cookie baker whose talents shone at the holidays. Her plates of Christmas cookies, with a pile of perfect fudge in the middle, drew oohs and ahhs at every house where they showed up. She made literally a dozen varieties of cookies and distributed plates throughout the month. Even into her 90s, she still made one of my brother’s and my favorites, Date Pinwheels.  

So when I saw this recipe for apricot pinwheels, or rugelach, I had to try it. Mom would have loved it. 

They are a bit involved, but worth the effort. Substitute another fruit jam if you prefer. 

Happy holidays! 

Apricot Pinwheels 

(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen)

For the dough: 

1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, room temperature

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 cups sifted unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the filling:

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed light-brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup golden raisins, or another dried fruit of your choice, chopped fine

1 cup finely chopped walnuts or another nut of your choice, toasted first if you’ve got time

1/2 cup apricot or raspberry preserves 

For the topping:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place cream cheese and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. Add sugar and continue processing until fully incorporated. Add flour and salt and pulse just until dough comes together.

(If you don’t have a food processor, use your stand mixer to beat butter and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Add sugar, beat until combined. Add flour and salt, and mix until just combined, with no flour visible.)

Place dough on a floured board. Divide into 2 equal pieces. Wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour. 

Meanwhile, make filling. In a medium bowl, toss together granulated and brown sugars, cinnamon, raisins, and walnuts; set aside. In a small saucepan, heat the preserves to liquify them slightly for easier spreading. Allow to cool a bit. 

Mix together the cinnamon and sugar for the topping. 

After the dough is chilled, lightly flour a cutting board. Roll 1 piece of dough into a rectangle about 1/8-inch thick, about 12 inches wide. Spread a thin layer of preserves evenly over dough; sprinkle with filling mixture. Roll dough into a tight log beginning with one of the long sides; wrap in plastic wrap. Transfer dough log to a baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining piece of dough. Place dough logs in refrigerator; let chill 10-15 minutes.  (Sorry for the lack of photos of making the rolls -- I got carried away and forgot!)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Slice chilled dough logs crosswise, about 1/4 inch thick. Lay each cookie in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, turning it over or tossing with a fork to lightly coat each side. Place cookies 3 inches apart on prepared baking sheets. 

Bake until lightly browned, 15 to 18 minutes. If any “tails” or layers have sprung loose, use your fingers to press the cookie back into a round shape. Let rest on baking sheet for another 2 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack. Let cool completely on racks. 

Once cool, cookies can be packed away and stored in an airtight container at room temperature for two weeks.

Makes about 4 dozen.

To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, we’re bringing out stand-alone editions of readers’ favorites from Carried to the Grave and Other Stories. Our second selection, after An Unholy Death, is the holiday short story “The Christmas Stranger.”

Amid the holiday rush of keeping the shelves stocked and filling orders for the Merc, the grocery her family has run for more than a century, proprietor Erin Murphy treasures the way her tight-knit community of Jewel Bay seems to grow even closer during the Christmas season. And this year, when she slows down to do a simple favor for a mysterious stranger, he shows his thanks with a small, quiet gesture—a gift that changes lives, and so much more . . .

Available now in ebook.  Isn't that cover fun? 

BETWEEN A WOK AND A DEAD PLACE: A Spice Shop Mystery (Seventh St. Books, in paper, ebook, and audio)

From the cover: 

It's the Lunar New Year, and fortunes are about to change. 

 

Pepper Reece, owner of the Spice Shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market, loves a good festival, especially one serving up tasty treats. So what could be more fun than a food walk in the city's Chinatown–International District, celebrating the Year of the Rabbit?

 

But when her friend Roxanne stumbles across a man's body in the Gold Rush, a long-closed residential hotel, questions leap out. Who was he? What was he doing in the dust-encrusted herbal pharmacy in the hotel's basement? Why was the pharmacy closed up—and why are the owners so reluctant to talk? 

 

With each new discovery, Pepper find herself asking new questions and facing more brick walls. 

 

Then questions arise about Roxanne and her relationship to Pepper's boyfriend Nate, away fishing in Alaska. Between her worries and her struggle to hire staff at the Spice Shop, Pepper has her hands and her heart full. Still, she can't resist the lure of the Gold Rush and its tangled history of secrets and lies stretching back nearly a century. 

 

But the killer is on her tail, driven by hidden demons and desires. As Pepper begins to expose the long-concealed truth, a bigger question emerges: Can she uncover the secrets of the Gold Rush Hotel without being pushed from the wok into the fire?

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Spice Shop Mysteries set in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries, set in NW Montana. As Alicia Beckman, she writes moody, standalone suspense, most recently Blind Faith. She is the winner of Agatha Awards in three categories: Best Nonfiction (2011), Best First Novel (2013), and Best Short Story (2018). Her latest book is Between a Wok and a Dead Place, the 7th Spice Shop mystery.  

A past president of Sisters in Crime and national board member of Mystery Writers of America, Leslie lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat, an avid bird-watcher.

Swing by Leslie's website and join the mailing list for her seasonal newsletter. And join her on Facebook where she shares book news and giveaways from her writer friends, and talks about food, mysteries, and the things that inspire her.