Nutella Roll Cookie

Do you realize that Purim will be here in just two weeks on Saturday night February 23rd?  Now is your chance to try all those cookie recipes and hamentashen recipes you have collected all year.  Guilt free baking, i.e. bake it;  taste it; and give it away.

This afternoon I went up to my big storage armoire full of ribbons, boxes, table decorations and odds and ends, to see what boxes I would like to pack my Mishloach Manot ^[1]or Purim Platicos in this year.  I started off baking four batches of Jazzy Oatmeal Cookies ^[2] and freezing them.  Don’t forget to clean out and turn on your extra refrigerator/ freezer. Second, I baked four recipes of Yummy Banana Bread. ^[3]

Last year one day while baking with my friend Suzette I had the idea of taking Suzette’s crostata ^[4]dough, a rich buttery cookie like dough that must be cold to work with, and using it in roll cookies.  I rolled out the dough and spread it with a thin layer of Nutella, orange marmalade, and a sprinkle of toasted pecans.  Wow, try this.  One recipe makes quite a few so I made two batches of dough.

Yield  40 cookies

Dough:

3 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted chilled butter

3 extra large egg yolks

1 extra large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar

zest of one lemon

Filling:

1/2 cup Nutella

1/3 to 1/2 cup orange marmalade

1/3 cup lightly toasted pecans, chopped

Measure flour and salt into a medium bowl and stir.  Add butter to flour and break up butter until small pea size.  Place sugar and eggs with vanilla and lemon zest in a medium bowl.  Beat with a whisk until very thick and light.  Combine eggs and flour using your cool hands to gently form a ball of dough.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap, flatten into a disc, and refrigerate for at least two hours.

When ready to bake, take dough out of refrigerator.  Heat oven to 350°F.  Line a rimmed baking half sheet with parchment paper or silpat.   Slice dough into two equal halves.  Roll dough into a 8 inch by 14 inch rectangle on a generously floured work surface.  Lately, I am enjoying the ease of handling dough on a very large size silpat that covers the whole counter.

Next, carefully spread Nutella, using a small spatula over dough, leaving 1 inch at top and bottom while getting very close to the sides. Drop and spread orange marmalade as best you can. Finally sprinkle filling with chopped toasted pecans.  Roll cookie up tight with cool hands working quickly as dough becomes room temperature.  Transfer log of dough to prepared baking sheet seam side down, and place in oven.  Repeat rolling out and filling second piece of dough.  Roll bakes between 20 to 25 minutes.  Check for a pale gold  beginning on roll before removing.  Let cookies cool for ten minutes.  Slice cookies in 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices with a very sharp knife.  When cookies are completely cooled you may freeze them or store them in an air tight container in the refrigerator.  I freeze mine. ^{[5] [6] [7]}