Durham and Dates

After two long days of driving, I finally made it to my friend Meggan's home in Durham, NC!  Our good friend Kshama came over that night and we all made cookies together while watching Elf.  I was excited to try out my Grandma Jean's Date and Nut Pinwheel cookies.  She only made them one time of year -- at Christmas.  Now, I can understand why.  They are such a pain to make!  Kshama was kind enough to take on the task of finely chopping all of those dates.  Meggan and I made the dough, and I also worked on the filling at the stove top.  With our fingers tired and sticky, we frantically spread the hot filling on the rolled out dough -- no easy task!  The filling was cooling and crystallizing a bit.  I think I overcooked the sugar!  But, we somehow made it work (barely).  After letting the dough chill overnight, we were able to slice and bake the cookies the next morning.  They were pretty crunchy, whereas my Grandmother's were chewy.  The taste was right on the money though.  So that was good.  I'll have to keep working on the texture.

I am happy to say that we were able to share these cookies (and the others we made too) at Meggan's Christmas party the next day.  It was great to catch up with friends from Duke!