CREAM CHEESE SPIRALS

I wanted to do something a little special for the volunteers at the thrift shop (HPC Platte County), but something that wouldn't be too hard to do. Wednesday night our grandchildren here (Madison and Tyler) are having their Christmas program at church and I offered to take a couple of dozen of cookies for afterwards when they have cookies and hot chocolate for everyone. I thought I would do a special cookie for that. While looking for another cookbook, I found this Cookies irresistible biscuits, brownies, and bars cookbook by Hilaire Walden. I may have found a recipe to make for Wednesday (want to check a few more cookbooks first), but I definitely found a recipe to try for the volunteers at the Hillcrest.

It was a little "involved" but not too bad. I had to wait for the oven to become available since my husband was baking some fish to add to a gumbo he was making for himself. That meant instead of the dough chilling for 30 minutes, it was probably in the refrigerator for an hour.

I had plenty of the "filling" mix, so for the second pan instead of sprinkling the spirals with sugar, I just sprinkled some more of the filling. It made a prettier and tastier spiral. I would definitely suggest doing that. I also couldn't roll the dough out to an 11 inch circle but it was close. It worked fine though.

Click here for a printable version of just the recipe.

CREAM CHEESE SPIRALS

1     cup butter (2 sticks), room temperature
1     8 - oz package cream cheese, room temperature
2     teaspoons sugar
2     cups flour
1     egg white 
1     tablespoon water
1     cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans
1/2  cup light brown sugar
1     teaspoon ground cinnamon

With an electric mixer, cream the butter, cream cheese, and the sugar until soft. 

Sift the flour over the bowl of butter mixture. 

Mix

(I did use the mixer, I was just scraping the sides of the bowl) to form a dough.

Gather into a ball and

divide in half.

Flatten each piece and

wrap in waxed paper or plastic wrap. Chill for at least 30 minutes. (I didn't lay them on top of each other in the refrigerator.)

Make the filling by combining the nuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl.

Set aside.












Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two cookie sheets.

Roll out each half of dough thinly in a circle about 11 inches in diameter.

Round edges with a knife.

Beat egg white with water.

Brush the surface of circle with the egg white mixture.

Sprinkle the dough evenly with half (didn't use that much) of the filling.

Using a pizza cutter cut the dough in fourths and then cut each fourth in half and then each half in half again...

16 triangles.

Carefully remove one of the triangles and

starting at the wide end of the triangle, roll the wedge tightly toward the point. (As you remove the triangle to edge of work area to roll, if some of the filling falls off, just add a little more on the wedge.)

Place on cookie sheet.

Brush spirals with more of the egg white mixture and then

sprinkle some of the filling over top.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. I did bake mine the full 20 minutes.

Remove to wire rack to cool. Store in a covered container.