Chanukah Swirl Cookies

     Ok here we go.  My first attempt at baking since I started this blog.  I wanted to make something special for my family's Chanukah party this year... especially since I know they are anxiously waiting to see what I will be bringing.  My idea was to make a cookie with two different colors using a swirl pattern I had seen in my trusty baking book (which I'll talk about during a later post).  Then, I'd melt chocolate into these silicone dreidel molds I found at Duane Reade, and press them into the middle of the cookie.
     The idea was great... the follow through, of course, did not go as planned.  I molded the chocolates and whipped up a sugar cookie dough from scratch.  I was on a roll.  I split the dough into two equal pieces, and used food coloring to make one blue and one yellow. When the dough was ready, I placed one on top of another (well really, I dropped one unevenly on another and had to carefully reshape the whole thing... but I worked it out)  Then I turned the dough into a tight pinwheel.
After freezing for about an hour, I cut thin slices, and put my first batch in the oven (The smoke alarm went off, but the cookies were not burned at all). The dreidels were huge, and covered the beautiful shape of the swirl.  Plus they melted from being on the warm cookie.  This was clearly not the way to go.  I nixed the dreidels.  I will be presenting them alone at the party.  The second batch was ready for the oven.  The smoke alarm again??  But my cookies were not burning... I figured there must be something else burning in the oven.    I decided to self clean the oven.  Had no idea how long it would take.  Three hours??  Two hours and fifteen minutes later, I had enough waiting.   My neighbor let me use her oven, which, she said, never has a problem.  Two batches and one smoke alarm later, I realized it was not my oven.  It was the wax paper I was using on the cookie tray.  These cookies came out quite burned and will not be presented with the others.  Now my husband and I have a snack this week.   My oven was finally ready, and I couldn't wait to get back to work.  I used non-stick spray on the pan this time.  Not one smoke alarm.  And I finished the cookies with ease.

         I have to say, I still think that my work looked a lot more impressive before it was cooked.  After cooking, you can barely tell the yellow part was colored, and although the swirl came out very even, it didn't look as professional as I would have hoped.  But for my first attempt at a swirled cookie, I'd say it was not half bad.  I hope it's a hit at the party!