Dear Santa.

I've spent the day baking cookies and biscuits of the most basic and most difficult sort (pinwheels are a killer), and will soon be sitting down for a lovely Christmas dinner. Here's the recipe for the pinwheels - give them a try for New Years' :)

Chocolate and orange pinwheels

INGREDIENTS

250g unsalted butter
1 cup (160g) icing sugar, sifted
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
grated rind of 1 orange
1 3/4 cups (260g) plain flour, sifted
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/4 cup (25g) cocoa powder, sifted

METHOD

1. Beat butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add vanilla essence and rind and mix well. Divide creamed mixture in half, keeping in two separate bowls.

2. Add 1 cup of flour and 1 tablespoon of orange juice to one lot of creamed mixture and mix to form dough. Turn onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently to form a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes. Add remaining flour, orange juice and cocoa to remaining creamed mixture and mix to form dough. Knead gently to form a ball. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

3. Roll each piece of dough out separately between two sheets of baking paper to form a rectangle about 24cm x30cm. Place orange sheet of dough onto a baking tray, leaving baking paper underneath. Lay chocolate dough directly on top. Chill for 15 minutes.

4. Starting at long edge, roll dough up very tightly, using baking paper as a guide. Chill for another 30 minutes or until very firm.

5. Meanwhile preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. Cut roll into 4mm slices and arrange biscuits on prepared trays. Bake for 13-15 minutes, until pale golden. Cool on wire racks.

Tip: When rolling pastry, the rectangles can be smaller if you are finding the dough difficult to handle. The pinwheels, however, look more effective made the size stated in method.

Have a lovely Christmas, all of you!

*love*

xx