Gingerbread cookies are perfect for the holiday season but they can be a bit much in my opinion. I think I like looking at gingerbread men more than I like eating them. These Ginger-Lemon Pinwheel Cookies provide that festive gingerbread taste but are mixed with fresh lemon which keep the cookies lighter in flavor. Two different doughs are made – a ginger dough and a lemon dough – and they are rolled out thin, layered, and rolled up and sliced to make the pinwheel effect. Of course, my pinwheels aren’t nearly as fancy or tight as the picture from Cooking Light’s website but they turned out good enough for me! These do take a little bit of time because the doughs need to be chilled in three different stages but they aren’t as hard to make as I thought they would be. The hardest part is rolling the dough into a log but I used plastic wrap to help me keep the dough from splitting and I worked slowly. These cookies are as visually pleasing as they are tasty. Give these a try if you just don’t feel like making gingerbread men…again.

The ginger dough ingredients:

Beat together brown sugar and butter. Add in molasses and egg yolk and mix well.

Add all of the spices to the flour and mix together. Slowly add the flour mixture to the bowl and mix well.

Turn dough onto plastic wrap and form into a disk. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

The lemon dough ingredients:

Mix together butter and sugar until creamy. Add in egg white and mix.

Add in vanilla and lemon zest.

Slowly mix in the flour until combined. Like the ginger dough, form dough into a disk in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

After doughs have chilled, roll both out until thin. Chill for another 10 minutes.

Layer ginger dough on top of lemon dough and carefully roll (from the long end) into a log as tightly as you can without tearing the dough. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Remove plastic wrap and slice the dough. Bake cookies on a baking sheet for 8-9 minutes in a 350°F oven.

Additions: None

Omissions: None

Substitutions:

• Light brown sugar for dark brown sugar

Overall Rating: Like It

Source: Cooking Light Magazine