Not all are beautiful, but wow, they taste great!

I worked on these for over a week.  Now that sounds like a long time, but I just did one task at a time on different days when I had a few spare moments.  I started by making the Apricot Lekvar.  I chose the apricot as opposed to the Prune option because I already had a bag of dried apricots on hand.  It was very easy to make and easily stored.  Next I worked on the nuts.  I used a mix of almonds, pecans, and hazelnuts.  I had to toast the pecan pieces that I had.  The almonds and hazelnuts that I had were already toasted.   After toasting,  I chopped all of them and measured them and stored them covered for several days as well.   Then I worked on the dried fruit.  I used Calimyrna figs, Medjool dates, and Crimson Raisins.  I pitted the dates and chopped the figs and raisins, then mixed them all together and added them to the growing ingredients.  Then when it came to the weekend I made the pastry dough in my Bosch mixer with my new cookie paddles that I ordered from Pleasant Hill Grain.  Then into the refrigerator for an overnight chill, well actually two nights because I didn’t get back to it until Sunday morning.  My original plan was to roll and fill the dough on Saturday night, but life intervened and that didn’t happen.  I was a bit apprehensive that I could get it all done on Sunday as the filled rolls needed to chill another four hours before baking.   I didn’t find it difficult to roll the dough out, but I did find it difficult to get the pastry rolled tight with all the wonderful filling ingredients stuffed inside.  

My first roll was too loose so when I cut and baked it quite of few of the pieces split open.  I found when cutting and baking the third roll , that if I submerged the cookie in the cinnamon sugar outside coating  and held it cupped between both hands and pressed it all together I had better luck with them staying rolled as they baked.  Falling apart during baking didn’t hurt the taste any, just the aesthetics.

These cookies are very rich and a lot of work to make.  I don’t think they will be on my list of regular cookies to bake.

For the adventuresome baker, the recipe can be found on page 325, of Baking with Julia, or on one of host blog sites for this week, either; Jessica of My Baking Heart or Margaret of The Urban Hiker.