French Twists

I'm working on something big, but in the meantime:  Christmas Cookies!

This recipe was one of the finalists in this year's LA Times Holiday Cookie Bake-Off.  It was the easiest of the recipes I hadn't done in some form.  I would really like to do the baklava rouladas, but the relative humidity is just too low to open a package of filo.  There isn't enough butter in the world.

The story behind these is that the submitter's Italian grandmother used to make them.  Therefore, I'm not sure if the "French" part is supposed to be derogatory.  Let's go with the pretend notion that Grandma was from Northern Italy and these originated in Southern France.  The cultures meld there because the boundary has shifted back and forth over the centuries.  Natives of Nice and Cannes even speak French with the slightest Italian accent.

Reading the recipe, these are a lot like rugelach, just shaped different.  I'm not a fan of rugelach, and need a big cup of café au lait to make them palatable.  Having these in stick shape instead of crescent makes the dunking easier, but they don't really need it.  They maintained quite a bit of moisture, despite being basically pie crust.  The original recipe suggests apple or raspberry jelly.  I don't like either and hauled out a jar of apricot orange jam.  While not as smooth as jelly - but close - it's what I would have used when I was considering doing the rugelach.  I also subbed sliced almonds for the walnuts because that's what I had in the pantry.  I say, come up with any jam/nut combination that works for you.  The coconut mellows out the flavors, so don't omit it, but I used unsweetened flakes since there seemed to be plenty of sugar between the jam and cinnamon sugar.

I'm decreasing the volume of the fillings slightly because a lot of it ended up on the cutting board.  I may not have rolled the dough thin enough, but it still would have been a lot if I had gone a couple more inches in both directions.

2-1/2 C flour
1 Tb baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 C (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
*1 egg
*1/2 C milk
*1 C jelly or smooth, unseeded jam
*1 C coconut
*3/4 C chopped nuts
1/4 C sugar mixed with 1 tsp ground cinnamon
Powdered sugar

1.  In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt.  Cut in butter until it is pea-sized.

2.  Separately, beat together the egg and milk.  Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the milk mixture.  Gently stir the ingredients until they come together into a dough.  I ended up adding about a tablespoon more milk to make it work, but it was a dry day.  The dough will seem to get more hydrated as it rests, so it's ok if it seems sort of dry at this point, as long as you can get it all to stick together in a single ball.

3.  Shape dough ball into a rectangle approximately 4" x 8".  This will make it easier to roll out later.  Wrap in plastic or wax paper and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.   Or, wrap again in foil, seal in a plastic bag, and freeze for up to 3 months.

4.  Preheat the oven to 350º.  Line 2 to 3 baking sheets with parchment or a silpat.  I used a silpat, and the cookies came off easily.  More important, the burnt jam came off the silpat easily.  And trust me, any jam that leaks out of the cookie will end up burnt.  How badly depends on whether your jam was sweetened with real sugar or corn syrup.  Not sure how sugar-free jams react to high temperatures.

5.  Place dough on a large, lightly floured surface and roll to 1/8" thick, trying to keep that rectangular shape.  I ended up taking pieces off one side and patching others.  Dough can do that.

6.  Spread a thin layer of jam over the entire rectangle, all the way to the edges.  On the lower half, sprinkle the cinnamon sugar, coconut, and nuts.  Fold the top half of the dough over the bottom half to completely cover the filling.  Lightly press the halves together.

7.  Using a sharp knife, cut the rectangle crosswise into 1/2"-thick strips.  The fold will be at the top of each strip.  Carefully twist each strip to form a spiral.  Place the spirals on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them about an inch apart.

8.  Bake the cookies until they are set and golden, 12-15 minutes.  Remove the cookies from the sheet to fresh parchment paper when cool enough to handle, or the jam will glue them down.  For Silpat, you can wait until they're halfway cooled.  Either way, dust with powdered sugar when cool.

Makes about 2-1/2 dozen

Difficulty rating. :)