Co-op Food + Lemon Ginger Molasses Pinwheel Cookies

I come home from a good sweaty yoga sesh only to find myself munching on a frosted chocolate cake. Oh, living in a co-op. Food is EVERYWHERE at every hour of the day. I come home to a huge hotel pan of chocolate cake, to the smell of homemade granola just out of the oven, to waffles wafting throughout the house, to cookies and flan and pie.

Aside from all of the sweet stuff, I come home to dinner every night at 7pm. Salads and roasted veggies and grains and beans and meats and cheese. To something new and exciting. To soups, stews, and casseroles. Comfort food, health food, vegan food, ethnic food.

Fresh baked bread. Fresh baked bread made with wheat gluten instead of flour: an accidental miracle. Snack shift. Oh, snack shift. Brownies, salsa, midnight madness.

Here is a photo of a typical co-op meal made by moi:

Mini grilled cheese bites (with a rosemary butter), balsamic roasted asparagus with sauteed chard, couscous salad with chickpeas, roasted bell peppers, olives, onion, and peas, and a spring mix salad with citrus (blood oranges, cara cara oranges, and grapefruit), cranberries, and feta cheese. Oh yes, and lemon ginger molasses pinwheel cookies as well as vegan sugar cookies for the vegans.

And here is a picture of a strawberry streusal coffee cake that I made last week (recipe from JoytheBaker):

Buttermilk Biscuit Bonanza:

A Whole Lotta Breaded n' Baked Chicken:

With the gargantuan amount of food that a cook makes for the house (I live with 60 people, some other co-ops have only 20 people, and some 160 people), it can be difficult to take nice photos because everything is made in large, industrial pots and pans, and I'm usually rushing to finish cooking so I haven't got a moment to photograph in nice lighting before someone devours the food.

What a rewarding experience it is to cook here. I get everything delivered (no grocery shopping necessary) and I get to cook with a variety of ingredients that come in seasonally. I can experiement and people will eat my experiments and compliment me, yay!

We even bought and entire cow to be more "green" and to save money for the house. Furthermore, we have switched to all-organic Straus milk and yogurt. Our eggs are organic, too.

While cooking for and living with 60 college students can be tough at times, it is nice to have a "family" to eat dinner with every night.

Oh, and here is the recipe for the Lemon Ginger Molasses Pinwheel Cookies. These cookies require a bit of time just because the dough has to be refrigerated a few times and rolled out and rolled up and cut. Worth it. These are aesthetically pleasing and taste really great. I taste real ingredients and I taste something sweet, satisfying, and soothing for my body.

Alice in Wonderland, the movie, is coming out next weekend, and these cookies would be great to make if you are hosting a "mad hatter" themed party in honor of Alice. They've got that Treshire Cat vibe going on.

Lemon Ginger Molasses Pinwheel Cookies
From CookingLight

yield: 40 cookies, serving size: 1 cookie

Ingredients

• Ginger dough:
• 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 large egg yolk
• 6 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/3 cups)
• 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• Dash of ground allspice
  
• 
  Lemon dough:
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 large egg white
• 2 teaspoons grated lemon rind
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 6 ounces all-purpose flour (about 1 1/3 cups)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Preparation

1. To prepare ginger dough, place 1/4 cup butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well combined (about 3 minutes). Add molasses and egg yolk; beat until well blended. Weigh or lightly spoon 6 ounces (about 1 1/3 cups) flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 6 ounces flour, ginger, and next 4 ingredients (through allspice); stir with a whisk. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill 30 minutes.

2. To prepare lemon dough, place 5 tablespoons butter and granulated sugar in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until blended (about 3 minutes). Add egg white; beat until blended. Beat in rind and vanilla. Weigh or lightly spoon 6 ounces (about 1 1/3 cups) flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 6 ounces flour and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat at low speed just until combined. Wrap dough in plastic wrap; chill 30 minutes.

3. Unwrap ginger dough. Roll ginger dough between sheets of plastic wrap into a 13 x 8 1/2–inch rectangle (3/16 inch thick); chill 10 minutes. Unwrap lemon dough. Roll lemon dough between sheets of plastic wrap into a 13 x 9–inch rectangle (3/16 inch thick); chill 10 minutes. Carefully stack ginger dough on top of lemon dough, leaving a 1/2-inch border along one long edge. Starting with the long side without a border, roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion. Seal edges (do not seal ends of roll). Cover with plastic wrap; freeze 30 minutes.

4. Preheat oven to 350°F.

5. Unwrap dough. Cut with a sharp knife into 40 slices (about 1/4 inch thick). Reshape rounds, if necessary. Arrange slices 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Bake, 1 batch at a time, at 350° for 8 to 9 minutes or until set and lightly browned. Cool on wire racks.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 81

Fat: 2.8g (sat 1.7g,mono 0.7g,poly 0.2g)

Protein: 1.1g

Carbohydrate: 13.1g

Fiber: 0.3g

Cholesterol: 12mg

Iron: 0.6mg

Sodium: 33mg

Calcium: 9mg