Pinwheels Cookies, The Cookiepedia Review and a Giveaway

My Mom was staying with me when my hubby was out of town for a few days last week.  It was one of the relaxing afternoons, with no plans of going out but just hung out in the kitchen.  We wanted to bake something together, then relax and enjoy the afternoon at the backyard with a cup of tea.  So, we were flipping through The Cookiepedia, searching for something fun to make. 



It didn’t take long for us to decide and we had a winner.  There were many classic and fun cookie recipes in this book, but the pinwheels really caught my eyes (pun intended).  These pinwheels looks whimsical and I know my little boy would enjoy them as much as we did when he returned from school.




“Full of delightful hand-drawn illustrations and mouth-watering full-color photographs, The Cookiepedia, by Stacy Adimando, features delicious recipes and inventive variations for all the cookies everyone loves, from Amaretti, Butter Balls, and Chocolate Spritz to Gingersnaps, Rugelach, and Snickerdoodles, as well as dozens of other favorites—more than 50 in all.”  



There were many things I love about this book.  I summarized them into ten main points:

1) Hard cover—I intended to use this recipe book over and over again and the durability is important to me.  I don’t know about you, but I had some other cookbooks that I used so often that the cover is coming off.

2) The spiral binding—This let the middle pages of the book stay opened easily, without having to press hard and winkle the pages.  Imagine your recipe book stay nicely opened on the book holder (if you have one of those fancy thingy) or on your counter top, making it easier to read.



3) Mouth-watering full-color photographs—Don’t you want to know how the end-products supposed to look like?  That’s how the Pinwheels caught my eyes!  Don’t people always say a picture is worth a thousand words?

4) Easy to follow instructions—Very important in any recipes book. 



5) Tips—Tips in this book are very helpful.  Some gave me the “ah-ha” moments.

6) Variations—These are all classic cookie recipes that we all familiar with, in The Cookiepedia.  It’s fun to try the original, but then it adds a little more excitement with the variations added. 



7) Note space area next to the recipe—I love writing my own notes on recipes.  Weather it is the variation I made on a recipe, or an idea for a tweak I wanted to try next time; the note space to me is a thoughtful gift from the author to the end users.

8) Personal experience—On each recipe, Adimando added a little background of the the recipe.  Some are her own childhood memories, some are the experiences she had with that recipes, some are just facts about the cookies.  I love reading those little stories and memories.  The stories made it more personal than just a recipe book.



9) Varieties—From Italian Biscutts, Chocolate sandwich cookies, to fig bars and Molasses Spice Cookies, the variety is broad and for sure you’ll find something you like.


10) I love and adore cookies, period.  I mean, who doesn’t?  Do I need a better reason to love this book? 


This Giveaway is now closed.  Winner will be announced shortly.  

Rules for the Giveaway:

With the courtesy of Quirk Books and Stacy, one lucky uTry.it reader (with an U.S. mailing address only) will have a chance to win a copy of The Cookiepedia.  Must be a uTry.it public follower/member through Google Friends Connect to participate.  (See the right hand side bar under “Follower” with the button “Join this site”).  You have until September 30th, 12 midnight PST to enter this giveaway.  Winner will be announced and contacted via email shortly after the giveaway is closed.

Mandatory Entry: 

Simply leave a comment and tell me what your favorite cookie is.  Or you can describe if you like your cookies buttery, crunchy, or chewy?  Or how much you love cookies!  Let's have a cookie talk, shall we?

Additional Entries: (you can do any or all of the following, just leave a separate comments for each entry)

1) “Like” uTry.it’s Facebook page.  Here’s the link. 

2) Share this giveaway with your friends on Facebook.  Please include the link to this post when you share.

3) Follow uTry.it on Twitter.  Here’s the link.

4) Tweet about this giveaway.  Please include my Twitter handle @utry_it and the link to this post in your tweet.

5) Subscribe to my blog via email.  You’ll receive an email to verify the subscription.  

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Good luck everyone!

These Pinwheel cookies are whimsical and perfect for gift-giving for the holiday season.   I'm entering this to the Holiday Recipe Swap.  Come join the fun at the My Baking Addiction and GoodLife Eats Holiday Recipe Swap sponsored by Beanilla.


Disclaimer: I was given a copy of The Cookiepedia free of charge for the purpose of this review. I was not compensated in any other way.  All opinions are 100% my own and always will be.





Pinwheels: (from The Cookiespedia) Printable Recipe
Makes 4 Dozen Cookies

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Get to work sifting the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.  Set it aside for the moment.

Cream together the butter and sugar for several minutes, until light and fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until incorporated.

Start tipping in the flour a third at a time; stop mixing when it’s just combined.  When the dough forms, divide it into two parts.  Reserve one half in plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge.  Mix the cocoa powder into the other half using a spatula.  Form the chocolate dough into a disk. wrap in plastic wrap, and chill both doughs in the fridge for at least 1 hour, until firm.

Roll out the chocolate dough to about 1/4-inch thickness, using just a little flour as needed.  Move it to a large piece of parchment paper.  Do the same with the vanilla dough, flattening them to around the same height and dimension.  Place the vanilla dough on top of the chocolate and run a rolling pin lightly over the two doughs to press them together.  Trim the doughs into a rectangle shape so they each have the same edges.

Starting at one of the short ends, carefully roll the dough up into a log, using the parchment paper to help.
Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or parchment paper and chill for at least an hour.  Do the same with the reserved pieces of dough.

Line a few cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Unwrap the log and slice it into cookies about 1/4-inch thick using a very sharp knife.  Lay the cookies on the sheets about 2 inches apart.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until you start seeing hints of edges turning golden.  Remove and let cool for a minute, then spatula to a wire rack.

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