Jackson Hole Bed and Breakfast Recipe Book- Fig Pinwheels

It’s Christmas cookie time!  As cookie-baking enthusiasts, we love this time of year at Inn on the Creek.  It seems that there are never enough days in the holiday season to try all of the new recipes we want to, while making our long-time favorites in our Jackson Hole bed and breakfast recipe book.  Here is a recipe from Martha Stewart for Fig Pinwheels that we were very excited to give a try!

Fig Pinwheels

Yields about 6.5 dozen

Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 3/4 cups dried figs, stemmed (about 8 ounces)
• 1 cup golden raisins (about 4 ounces)
• 1 cup apple juice
• 1 cup orange juice

Instructions

1. Make dough: Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl and set aside. Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture. Divide dough in half, and wrap each half in plastic. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight.
2. Transfer one of the dough halves to a lightly floured piece of parchment paper. Roll out to a 10-by-12-inch rectangle, trim edges with a knife. Repeat with remaining dough half. Transfer each rectangle on parchment to a baking sheet. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
3. Make filling: Bring figs, raisins, and juices to a simmer in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium. Cook, stirring often, until fruit has softened and only a few tablespoons of liquid remain, about 25 minutes. Let cool completely. Transfer fig mixture to a food processor, and puree until smooth.
4. Spread half the filling over each rectangle. Starting with a long side, roll dough into a log. Wrap each log in plastic; refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight.
5. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut logs into 1/4-inch-thick slices using a sharp knife, transferring to baking sheets lined with parchment paper (and reshaping into rounds, if needed) as you work. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges turn golden brown, about 15 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Notes

The instructions call for waiting for the dough to chill often between steps.  While not the easiest thing to do when you just want to finish a sweet treat, it makes all the difference when handling the dough.  Fortunately, it’s easy to work the chilling around preparing other parts of the recipe.  We also recommend keeping an eye on the pinwheels while they are baking.  We found that ours were perfectly cooked after only 10 mintues.  They also went from perfectly golden brown to dark and crispy very quickly.  This recipe from our Jackson Hole bed and breakfast recipe book reminds us of a fancy homemade “Fig Newton”, but way more delicious!