Whole Grain Sourdough Pinwheels
These pinwheels are almond-y, naturally colored with whole grains, and a great use for your sourdough discard! Sometimes, we all just want some spirals in our life and sometimes, they come in cookie form.
Equipment
- A baking sheet!
Ingredients
for the light dough
- 113g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 50g unfed sourdough starter (sourdough discard)
- 80g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 170g sifted spelt flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
for the dark dough
- 113g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 50g unfed sourdough starter (sourdough discard)
- 80g granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 85g sifted rye flour
- 85g sifted buckwheat flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- First, make the light dough. In a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer, cream the butter, sourdough discard, and sugar together on high speed for 6 minutes, until light and fluffy. Scrape the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
- Add the extract and mix for 20 seconds on high speed, then scrape the bowl sides. Add the sifted spelt flour and salt then combine on low speed until no more butter streaks are visible. Scoop the dough (scraping it out of the bowl really well!) onto a square of saran wrap and pat into a small rectangle, about 5x6 inches. Cover up the dough and set in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Make the dark dough now. You don’t need to wash the bowl. Repeat the light dough’s making process, swapping in the rye and buckwheat flour for the spelt flour. Cover and set the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Roll out each dough between two parchment sheets into a very precise 11x5-inch rectangle. It should be about a ¼ inch thick. You may have to slice off any uneven edges and pat them into any necessary places to fill out the rectangle. Keep the parchment papers on the dough and set on a sheet pan, then place in the freezer for 5 minutes.
- Take the doughs out, pull off the parchment papers (save one for the next step) and stack the dark dough directly on top of the light dough. If there is any unevenness to the edges, you can trim the edges as necessary with a sharp knife.
- Roll up the doughs together into a long cylinder, then set on a parchment sheet on the sheet pan in the freezer for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Pull out the cylinder and slice into ½-inch thick cookies, then set on the sheet pan with parchment paper, leaving 2 inches between the cookies. This may fill up two sheet pans. Set the filled sheet pan(s) in the freezer for 10 minutes.
- Bake the cookies for 14 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the bake. They won’t look browned but they are done! Let cool on the sheet pan for five minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack. Enjoy! Let me know what you think below in the comments or on Instagram @higheralchemybaking!
Notes
You can replace the spelt flour with all-purpose flour. You can replace the rye flour or buckwheat flour with whole wheat flour. But unfortunately, there will be only a subtle color difference between the doughs then.
You can use vegan butter for the unsalted butter. My favorite brand is Miyoko's Creamery.
You can replace the almond extract with vanilla extract if almond is not your thing!
Feel free to use raw sugar instead of granulated sugar.