November 26, 2018

These Christmas Lemon Pinwheel Cookies are absolutely delicious, they have a citrusy zing and a light, crunchy texture. They are easy to make but require a little time.

I don’t know about you, but each year comes to a point before Christmas where I am just fed up with the strong, traditional Christmas flavours. At that stage, my body craves something refreshing and zingy such as lemon flavours. Also, Mr Healthy Tart loves lemon flavour which makes these lemon pinwheel cookies a real winner for the Christmas season.

Best of all, I figured out a way to make refined sugar-free Lemon Curd. I actually made way too much for this recipe and ended up eating it by the spoon, so yummy. Don’t worry the recipe is going to follow soon.

How to make pinwheel cookies

Making Lemon Pinwheel Cookies is rather simple, but it requires a bit of time because the dough needs to be chilled for at least two hours. It is really up to yourself how elaborate you want it to be, you can make the lemon curd yourself or you can simply buy some.

You start by making the dough, that is as simple as adding flour, butter, sour cream and salt to a kitchen machine and mixing it. If you don’t have a fancy kitchen machine, use a bowl and a wire whisk instead.
I like using two different spelt flours because I want to add a little more fibre and nutrients. If you use only wholemeal flour the cookies will become very dense, to prevent that I mix 2/3 wholemeal flour with 1/3 of white flour.
Once the dough starts to come together, remove it from the bowl and shape it into a ball. You want to try to handle it as little as possible so that the fats don’t melt and the dough becomes too soft.
Wrap it in clingfilm and chill it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. If you are short on time, don’t worry, you can also prepare it the night before as it doesn’t contain any raising agents.
While the dough rests in the fridge it is time to prepare the filling. Simple combine the zest of one lemon with brown sugar and lemon curd and whisk until it’s smooth.

How to roll Pinwheel Cookies

Remove the dough from the fridge and split it into two balls. Roll them out on a lightly floured surface or between to sheets of baking paper, both methods work just fine. You want them to be a rectangular shape of about 25 x 35cm.
Now you simply spread half of the filling onto each rectangle. Make sure not to overfill or it will be difficult to roll. Once you have spread the filling evenly, start rolling up the dough from the long edge. Make sure to roll it up quite loosely or it will stop the cookies from expanding. Don’t worry if the shape doesn’t look perfect at this stage, this will even out during baking.
But before we can bake it, you will need to transfer both rolls onto a board and freeze them for about one hour. This will help the rolls to firm up and prepare them for being cut into cookies. Make sure to use a serrated knife to cut the cookies. If the dough is too hard to cut, simply let it soften up at room temperature for a couple of minutes. If it’s too soft, you won’t be able to cut it properly because the knife will squash the roll. In that case, simply pop it back into the freezer for another couple of minutes.

How to bake and glaze Lemon Pinwheel Cookies

Now it is time to bake those little beauties, place them onto two parchment paper-lined baking trays and bake at 350 °F/180 °C for 12-15 minutes.
Once they start to brown slightly, remove them from the oven and place them on a cooling rack. Let them cool completely before applying the glaze, or the glaze will not stick.
I tried to make the glaze a little less calorie dense by using Xylitol instead of icing sugar but regular icing sugar will work just fine. Usually, I wouldn’t have icing sugar at home, so I would add xylitol to my high-speed blender ( I am using an Optimum Vac 2 Air Vacuum Blender, you can read my review here) and pulse until it turns into a fine powder. Xylitol has fewer calories than sugar and is better for your teeth, but may cause digestive issues in people suffering from IBS (never give anything containing xylitol to your pet, it could be fatal, animals can’t digest xylitol ). Now simply mix it with the lemon juice until you get a smooth texture.
Apply the glaze using a pastry brush to get an even coating across the entire Lemon Pinwheel Cookie. Let the glaze dry completely before storing the cookies.

How to store Lemon Pinwheel Cookies

First, you need to make sure that they are completely cooled and that the glaze has dried. You want to store them in an airtight tin or glass jar to stop them from drawing moisture and going soft. If I store them in a tin, I like adding kitchen paper between each layer to prevent moisture as well.
If you store your Lemon Pinwheel Cookies like this they will keep several weeks. Well, ours never last that long because we gobble them up within a few days.