Pistachio Coconut Pinwheels

Pisatchio Coconut Pinwheels

Pisatchio Coconut Pinwheels

Pinwheel anything is always eye catching. The shape is common with both sweet and savory dishes. One of the most common pinwheel items in the food category is the “pinwheel cookie”. Here I’ve concocted up a version using, of course, our favorite nut: the pistachio.

Yields about 15 cookies.

Ingredients:

2/3 cups Cake Flour

1 1/3 cups All purpose-flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 cup cold butter, cut into 1/3-inch cubes

1 whole egg

1 egg yolk

2 cups pistachios

1 cup coconut

green food coloring (if desired)

2 cups white chocolate

Directions:

Using a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, mix both flours, the salt, and confectioners’ sugar on low speed for 30 seconds. Caution! You must mix on low speed, since we are starting off with mixing dry ingredients, using a high speed will cause the flour to go everywhere. Add the butter and continue mixing on low speed for about 2 minutes. Add in egg and egg yolk and mix for 1 to 2 minutes. The dough should begin to clump together in the form of small pebbles. Continue to mix until the dough comes together completely.

Once the dough comes together, prepare a small rectangle of plastic wrap (big enough to cover half the dough). Spoon half of the dough into the plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Using a food processor, chop both the pistachios and coconut (separately). Should chop for about 15 seconds. With the remaining batter in the mixing bowl, add in 1 1/2 cups of the pistachios (you want to leave a few for decoration at the end) and two drops of food coloring. Using a rubber spatula fold in completely until combined. Place this dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes also.

In the meantime, take 1/2 of the coconut and place in food processor. Coarsely chop for about 15 seconds.

Pistachio dough rolled between two pieces of parchment paper

Pistachio dough rolled between two pieces of parchment paper

Once the dough is ready, remove from refrigerator. Starting with the pistachio dough, place it on a piece of parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment paper on top. Use a rolling pin to roll it into an 8 x 12 in rectangle.You can vary the sizes to your design style, the longer the rectangle, the more swirls the final cookie will have. It is okay if it is not perfectly rectangular as you will be cutting the edges off later. After rolling out the pistachio dough, do the same for the plain dough.

If you do not have parchment paper, you can roll it out on a clean surface, be sure to add flour to both the surface, the rolling pin, and the surface of the dough so that it does not stick. In the picture included I’ve shown both the parchment paper method (with the pistachio dough) and flour method (with the plain dough). Also note that sweet pastry dough can quickly become heated and hard to work with. If the dough become too sticky to work with, simply return it into the refrigerator for a few minutes in order to allow the butter in the mixture to harden again.

After both doughs are rolled out, you want to place the plain dough on top of the pistachio dough. You can use a large offset spatula to help you lift it on if necessary. Line the rectangles up as best you can. You may use a rolling pin, lightly, to help smooth the plain dough on top of the pistachio dough. Using a sharp knife, trim the edges so that it forms a near perfect rectangle.

Rectangular doughs with coconut

Rectangular doughs with coconut

Rolling dough into a log

Rolling dough into a log

Take the coconut and evenly spread it on top of the plain dough. Press the coconut into the dough so that it sticks. Then, starting on the short side, use the parchment paper to help you roll up the two doughs to form a log. Wrap this in plastic wrap and place in freezer for one hour.

Pinwheel Log

Pinwheel Log

Coconut filled pinwheels with a looser roll

Pinwheel from the 8×12 rectangle

Separate batch of pinwheels with a very tight roll

Separate batch of pinwheels in which I used a longer rectangle

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. After the hour, remove from freezer and cut log into 1/4 inch thick cookies. In the example pictures, I have shown two separate batches in order to demonstrate the effects on how you roll your log. The one image with less of a spiral is the coconut filled one. The other image, I chose not to use a coconut layer in order to roll the layers closer to eachother, creating a tighter spiral effect.

Place on a baking sheet that is either lined with parchment paper or buttered. Bake for about 12 minutes or until the sides begin to turn a golden brown.

Remove from oven, and let cool on a wire rack. While the cookies are cooling, melt the white chocolate in either a double boiler or a bowl resting on a pot of simmering water. Also, mix together your remaining pistachios and coconut. Once the cookies are cool, dip the outer edges of the cookie in chocolate and then quickly sprinkle with the coconut pistachio mixture. Let cool again on wire racks until the chocolate hardens.

Coconut filled Pistachio Pinwheels

Coconut filled Pistachio Pinwheels

3 Comments
  • joanne
    Posted at 13:44h, 17 January Reply

    Do you do mail orders? Love your baking and
    cooking!

  • danacaroline
    Posted at 01:41h, 05 February Reply

    I’m impressed with your recipes and blog. Love it! I’m inspired!

    • dungo21
      Posted at 01:56h, 05 February Reply

      Thanks @danacaroline !!! Glad you enjoy it 🙂

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