DATE-NUT (PINWHEEL) COOKIES

Steps:

• Filling: Combine, mix, and cook ingredients listed for filling over medium heat in pot until sugar melts and mixture achieves consistency of a paste. Let it cool. (Put it in an airtight container in refrigerator until the dough is ready to receive this filling spread on top. Take it out in time to let it warm up and become more spreadable. You may want to heat it briefly in a microwave if it is too cold, but don't let it reach much more than room temperature. No microwave in my childhood, so this is a new possibility.) For Dough: Cream butter and all sugar (white and brown). Add beaten eggs to creamed mixture. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly, and gradually mix into combination of butter, sugar, and eggs. Divide dough into 4 or 5 sections, wrap in plastic or place in sealed containers, and chill well (in refrigerator, typically overnight per my dear old mom's activities in my childhood). Roll out each dough segment into an oblong length, perhaps 1/8 inch thick (or so), as I recall. (My mother used plastic wrap with flour dusted on it to receive the dough and to roll it out.) Preparing the Cookies Using Rolled Dough and Filling and Baking: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spread filling on top of length of rolled, flat dough (some five inches by 24 to 30 inches, as I recall). This rolled dough length should be ROUGHLY five inches wide and much longer. When the filling is on top of the dough, roll the dough into a spiral of dough and filling. The roughly five inch wide direction is the direction of the roll, and the result should be a long tube of rolled dough. Cut these into 1/2 inch wide lengths (which should look like spirals of dough and filling), and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake the cookies in preheated 375 degree F oven for ten or fifteen minutes. (Check them at ten, and adjust the time for what works with your pans and oven.)