Cinnamon Swirl Cookies

I made these Cinnamon Swirl Cookies to give away. I did have just a few.

They were part of my Christmas gift boxes last year. They also features in 2 hospital ward Christmas parties and our own annual Yule party. Crunchy, not overly sweet, and tasty leads me to make these again some time soon. This recipe came from the Martha Stewart site. Until recently they had a cookie of the day post. The post is now called dessert of the day.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookie

You really need to try these:

I made 4 batches in order to have enough to give away.

In total I used:

8 Cups of All Purpose Flour
4 Teaspoons of Salt
2 Teaspoons of Baking Soda
2 Pounds (8 Sticks) of softened Unsalted Butter
4 Cups of Sugar
1 Teaspoon of fresh Orange Zest
8 Large Eggs

For the filling I used:
8 Ounces (2 Sticks) of softened Unsalted Butter
2 Cups of Brown Sugar
2 Cups of Dark Brown Sugar
2 Cups of Chopped Walnuts, lightly toasted
2 Teaspoons of Cinnamon

I made theses Cinnamon Swirl Cookies in 2 batches making about 24 dozen cookies.

More after the jump.......
I started out gathering and measuring everything out so that I could move quickly.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - The ingredients

I the combined the sifted flour, salt, and baking soda into a bowl and setting that aside. I added the butter, sugar, and orange zest into the mixer and beat it for 4 or 5 minutes. I scraped down the bowl a couple of times.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Mixing the flour and sugar

I then added the eggs one at a time to the mixer and ensured they had been combined.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Adding an egg

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Ready for another egg

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Final egg mixing

Next I added the flour and mixed the dough until it was just combined.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Adding the flour

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Just about mixed

When I removed the bowl from the mixer I mixed it with a spatula to catch any stray flour. I split the dough into 2 portions and wrapped them in plastic warp. I repeated the whole process again, finally giving me 4 wrapped batches of dough. I refrigerated everything for an hour until the dough firmed up.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Separated and wrapped for the fridge

As the dough was chilling I toasted the walnuts for about 8 minutes and cooled them. I also mixed both brown sugars, the butter, and the cinnamon in a bowl and added the walnuts. I split this mixture in to 4.
Once the dough was chilled I rolled it out to a 10" x 12" rectangle and squared it off with a paring knife. I placed the dough on a no stick mat ( you could use parchment paper). I then sprinkled the just 80% of the dough with the mixture.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Spreading the filling

After the sprinkle, I rolled the dough up using the no stick mat to assist me. I sealed the roll with the un-coated edge of the dough, wrapped the log in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator for another hour or so. I repeated with the other 3 pieces of dough.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Rolling the log

Once the logs were well chilled I removed them from the fridge and cut the logs into 1/4" slices or slightly smaller and put 12 pieces on a baking sheet. The remainder of the log I kept cool until the oven was free to bake another batch.  With the ragged ends I gathered together and baked them for a  

baker's treat. 

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Ready for the oven

The cookies then went into the oven for 17 minutes at 350 degrees. When they came out of the oven they cooled off the tray on a cooling rack.

Cinnamon Swirl Cookies - Cooling on the Pan

I am usually a pecan freak rather than a walnut aficionado but these were amazing! Did I say they were good?