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.
This recipe looks similar to the recipe my mom and I made for many Christmas cookie trays. I don’t have it with me for exact comparison, but a big difference is ours made two rolls. Her recipe was in a paper cookie recipe book which she had cut from a magazine in the 1960s (?) And folded into a small book.
I believe these cookies were quite popular during that time and I’m sure there were many versions. Thanks so much for sharing your story! 🙂
Thank you for sharing a bit of your family treasures. I absolutely love this recipe and can’t stop eating the cookies! I’ll definitely be making these for our church Christmas bake sale. Thanks again!
I love hearing this! Thanks, Patti. 🙂
These are delilcious but mine bake very soft with no crispiness. Is that how they are meant to be?
The cookies should not be crisp. You can bake them a bit longer if you’d like them to firm up more but they should be somewhat soft.
My cookies came out really puffy and large. my dough may have been too thick when rolled out – but thinner may have produced holes and then the dates would leak out. not sure – maybe i used too much date filling. but they are all stuck together and came out really large and puffy. not compact and stuck together like the picture shows. Any help on this?
This recipe is soooooo easy and produces wonderful cookies. I baked a batch of the cookies, took half the batch to my brother. He proceeded to tasted them — then asked me if that was all the cookies I cooked. Yes, he is in love with these cookies. I had to give him a batch of frozen cookies for the future. Thanks for the recipe!
If you want to try this recipe, double the flour. Mine turned into a sticky mess.
I can’t be sure what went wrong for you but I definitely do not recommend doubling the flour. Did you chill the dough as directed? This recipe has been made countless times by more than one generation and the ratio of dry to wet ingredients is correct as written.
These turned out fantastic! I followed the recipe to the letter, and it was perfect. My dad loved them. Thanks!
I love hearing this! So happy your dad loved them. Thanks, Jo. 🙂
I just knew something was wrong when I tried to roll out the dough. Too thick! If you look at any old BH&G cookbook, it says the dough should be divided into two pieces, each piece being rolled out to 8 x 12, spreading half of the dates on each. Check it out.
Hi Jan. This recipe came from my mom’s recipe collection. I hope it works out for you if you try it again. Thanks!
I Had difficulty spreading the dates without ripping the dough. How do I solve this problem
The chilled dough is quite sturdy and there shouldn’t be a problem if the date mixture is the right consistency. You could try adding a bit more water to make it more spreadable. Hope it ended up working out for you!
I came on here to compare a recipe I have from my MIL in the 60s.
Hers is very similar but calls for 1 3/4 cup of flour. 1/2 t soda 1/4 tsp salt. Perhaps cut back on flour for a more pliable dough. It always turns out well except for one time I didn’t let the date filling cool enough and it melted the dough. So I stirred it all together and quite successfully made drop cookies.
Quick question – doubling recipe but the filling recipe does not appear to double the dates . Please follow -up on ingredients for doubling of the filling
Thank-you
The recipe calls for 8 ounces of dates. You’ll need 16 ounces if you double the recipe.
What did I do wrong my dough fell apart when I removed from fridge ball was hard microwaved for 20 seconds so dough was malleable did not hold together at all .However the dough is delicious raw.
It sounds like the dough may have been too dry. If you try it again, be sure to spoon your flour into the measuring cup and level it. Sorry it didn’t work out for you!
I made this for a friend who had fond memories of her Grandmother making these but my friend didn’t have a recipe.
She LOVED them and was so happy to get the recipe. It was a new-to-me cookie and I loved them, too. I am making them again today. It does take a little time to get the dough to a good temperature to be malleable. Don’t microwave it. Just take time. It is not a good one if you are in a hurry, but it is a delicious cookie!
Thanks for your tips. 🙂
I’m making this again for my Christmas cookie tray and cookies by mail. Everyone loves these cookies! Thank you!!
Fantastic! Thanks, Pat. 🙂
I also had this problem and was trying to recreate my Grandmother’s cookies. I ended up adding a little water to this recipe to make the dough soft enough to work and so it wouldn’t crumble. How I did it was cut the dough into balls to be worked (I had doubled the recipe so I had 6 of them) I put passed my hands through warm water before working each ball and it worked perfectly. I leveled my cups of flour and it was still too dry. Next time I think I am going to add another egg to the recipe.