These vintage Date Pinwheel Cookies are a nostalgic choice for your holiday cookie trays. Cookie dough is rolled with a sweet date filling to create these delicious treats.
Love baking with dates? Be sure to try my Oatmeal Date Cookies too!
My mom had a knack for cooking from memory and it was rare that she would actually pull out a recipe and follow along. Thankfully, she did take time record her most beloved recipes on recipe cards including this Date Pinwheel Cookie recipe. She stored them all in a large photo album along with magazine and newspaper clippings and her handwritten notes.
Her notes didn’t include what was obvious to her. She didn’t need to remind herself of the order to mix ingredients together, what thickness to roll the dough out, or to what consistency to cook things. She had all of that in her head. Over the years, I’ve been filling in the blanks and publishing many of her recipes so we can all recreate these truly special recipes in our own kitchens.
Along with Mom’s Lemon Bars, Pecan Sandies, and Gingerbread Cake, these Date Pinwheel Cookies were a holiday tradition in our house. I honestly didn’t have a strong memory of them until I pulled a batch out of the oven and popped one in my mouth. The flavor of this cookie takes me back to our small living room, filled with Christmas lights, Mom is in the kitchen and the entire house smells of Christmas cookies. They are absolutely delightful.
Table of contents
Ingredient Notes
Dry ingredients: All-purpose flour, salt, and baking soda.
Wet ingredients: Softened butter, light brown sugar, pure vanilla extract, and an egg.
Date filling: Chopped fresh dates, granulated sugar, water, and chopped nuts. I love the flavor of pecans with dates but you can use walnuts, if you’d like.
How to Make Date Pinwheel Cookies
- Dry ingredients: Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
- Wet ingredients: In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream the butter with granulated sugar and brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla and continue mixing until well incorporated.
- Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir with a spoon until combined.
- Refrigerate: Using clean hands, work the dough until it holds together in a ball. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
- Date filling: Place the chopped dates, granulated sugar and water in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the dates have cooked down to a paste-like consistency. Mix in the chopped nuts and remove the pan from the heat. Set the filling aside to cool.
- Shape the dough: Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured piece of wax paper to a 12- x 8-inch rectangle. Use your hands to square up the edges so you have a nicely shaped, evenly rolled out, rectangle.
- Fill and roll: Spread the cooled date mixture on the dough. Starting at one of the long ends, begin to carefully roll the dough into a log.
- Chill: Wrap the rolled dough in the wax paper and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
- Slice: Use a sharp knife to slice the chilled log of cookie dough into ¼-inch slices.
- Bake: Place the slices on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 375 degrees F for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips for the Best Date Pinwheel Cookies
Chill the dough twice: Don’t be tempted to skip the step of refrigerating the dough before rolling it out or it will be too soft and sticky to work with. Refrigerating it again after being rolled with the filling will make it much easier to slice neatly.
Date filling tips: Spoon the date filling on to the center of the rolled out rectangle of cookie dough and use an offset spatula to spread it out to within within about ½-inch of the edges. You want to leave a border so the filling won’t seep out of the pinwheels as they bake.
Size and shape: Slice the cookie dough log as evenly as possible so the cookies will be a uniform thickness and cook at the same rate. They may not be shaped perfectly so use your hands to round them out so they’ll be nice and pretty after they bake.
Storage Tips
Transfer the completely cooled cookies to an airtight container and store at room temperature for 4 to 5 days. To keep them fresh for up to a week, these cookies can be refrigerated. For longer storage, place in a freezer-safe container and freeze for 2 to 3 months.
More Christmas Cookie Recipes You’ll Love
- Chewy Iced Molasses Cookies
- Italian Cookies
- Jam Thumbprint Cookies
- Butterscotch Gingerbread Cookies
- Chocolate Peppermint Crinkle Cookies
- Eggnog Thumbprint Cookies
- Find more in my complete collection of cookie recipes.
I hope you give these delicious treats a try this holiday season.
Thanks Mom.
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Date Pinwheel Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar, divided
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 8 ounces fresh dates, chopped (approximately 1 cup)
- ½ cup water
- 1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
Instructions
- Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, using a hand mixer, cream the butter with ½ cup granulated sugar and the brown sugar. Mix on medium speed for a minute or two. Add the egg and vanilla and continue mixing until well incorporated.
- Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir with a spoon until combined. Using clean hands, work the dough until it holds together in a ball. Wrap the ball of dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, place the chopped dates, remaining ¼ cup granulated sugar and the water in a small saucepan over MEDIUM heat. Bring the mixture to a boil then reduce the heat to LOW and simmer for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the dates have cooked down to a paste-like consistency, mix in the chopped nuts and remove the pan from the heat. Set aside to cool.
- Roll the chilled dough out on a lightly floured piece of wax paper to a 12- x 8-inch rectangle. Spread the cooled date mixture on the dough to within about ½-inch of the edges. Starting at one of the long ends, begin to carefully roll the dough into a log. Wrap the rolled dough in the wax paper and refrigerate for at least an hour or overnight.
- When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Use a sharp knife to slice the roll into ¼-inch slices. Place on lightly greased or parchment paper lined baking sheets and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on thr baking sheets for a minute or two before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated using generic ingredients, and is an estimate not a guarantee. For more accurate results, please refer to the labels on your ingredients at home.
More Christmas Treats
This post was originally published on December 8, 2012. It has been updated with new text and images.
Thank you for posting this recipe.Been making this recipe for 65 years, my Grandmother taught me how to make them. She always added ground cloves, cinnamon, and used crisco instead of butter. She was a master baker.
These are delicious!
Can I freeze these,s cookies?
Yes, the dough freezes very well. Just wrap the log in plastic wrap and then in a layer of foil before freezing. Allow the dough to thaw completely in the refrigerator before slicing and baking.
I was attempting to re-create a fond memory for a friend who was recovering from surgery. It was a huge hit! I had never had these, but she said they were exactly what her Gramma used to make. I was a bit skeptical when they were so crumbly, but they turned out perfectly!
Valerie,
I enjoyed using your recipe to create a Christmas tradition. It was well written and easy to follow. I also appreciated your light-hearted comments. Made the process very personable. Thank you for providing.
Thanks, Don! So glad you enjoyed the cookies 🙂
Thank you for sharing ! These bring back some of my favorite childhood memories !
I just made two batches of these. The first batch I oopsed and I rolled the dough out to 12 x 9 in rolled it up starting with the 9 inch side. Then I reread the directions and realized I should’ve rolled it up from the 12 inch side, the long side. I got two entirely different cookies. The first batch with this gorgeous looking spiral and when you bit into it you have the slight crunch of the cookie dough along with the chewy almost candy like date swirl. The one rolled up as per directions had sort of date like swirl but not as obvious as the other one And the dough was much more prominent. The date flavor was definitely less than the first one. In future, I will roll out to 12 x 9 and roll from the short side. That extra inch of width made it much easier to roll out. At 8 inch width, the thickness of the dough it was just enough that when you rolled it it wanted to split and you had to really work with it . It is a far superior cookie done the first way.
these cookie are delicious!! and not too difficult to make. Well I need to learn how to roll it better for next time, but these were perfect. thanks for the recipe.
I made them two weeks before baking them, froze them and defrost the night before before starting to bake.
Making now — I had lost my grandmas recipe and am excited to make these again. Any idea how to adjust the sugar in the date mixture if instead of fresh dates I use chopped dates in a package that are presugared?( I am trying it with just 1 T rather than 1/4 cup)
My mother also made these. They were my dad’s favorite Christmas cookie. Thank you for sharing!! Making some for my mother who now lives in assisted living. She will love having them and I will love the aromatic stroll down memory lane!
Your method in the recipe does not reflect changing the ingredients to 2X or 3X. …why not?
There is a button on the recipe card that allows you to scale the recipe. I hope this helps!
Thank you so much for posting this recipe. My Mom made these when we were growing up. I had her recipe but somewhere during the years, it got lost. This brings back many cherished memories of my mother. Thank you again!!!
You’re so welcome!