Date and Walnut Pinwheel Cookies
A Classic Cookie, Mindful Eating and Heart Hunger. It’s just a short scroll for the complete recipe from my Mom.
Emotional Eating and holidays, like Christmas, can bring about overeating.
It happens. We eat for many reasons, including physical hunger.
We long for foods that bring memories, like this Date and Walnut Classic Pinwheel from my mom! Keep scrolling to read about emotional eating, heart hunger and eating mindfully.
I am from a Czech background. The foods we had at the holidays (and many times of the year) were heavier, floury, and some were completely satisfying!
The cookie I hated as a kid, that my mom loved, is below.
When I went through my mothers recipes recently, typed on her Underwood typewriter, I decided to make this cookie from my childhood. I had Heart Hunger.
It tastes delicious now, mom.
First, the Date and Walnut Pinwheel Recipe:
(Some of it I had to put together myself, as my mother learned cooking from watching HER mother. There were not exact measurements, as cooking was done by feel).
Cookie base:
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
2 cups sifted flour
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda.
Filling:
6 1/2 oz of dates, cut into pieces
1/3 cup water
1 cup finely chopped (minced) nuts
Sift flour, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
In a mixer, or by hand, cream butter and sugar.
Add in egg, mix to incorporate, then add vanilla.
Stir until all is incorporated.
Add dry ingredients and mix.
Flatten into 2 rectangular shapes and chill.
Meanwhile, chop those dates into small pieces and add to the 1/3 cup of water.
Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes, to soften. Shut off heat.
Add in the 1 cup of your finely chopped nuts. I used walnuts like my mom. I also ran a submersion blender through this filling, to smooth it out. Let cool, while dough is chilling. (I chilled the dough for about an hour).
Roll each rectangle out on a floured piece of parchment or wax paper. (My mom’s recipe says to roll to a 12 x 9 rectangle, but if it’s smaller thats fine. Just make a rectangle!).
Spread the date filling onto the cookie base. From the long end of the rectangle, roll as tightly as you can. Wrap in the paper and chill again, overnight, as per my mom. Me, I am impatient, so I do two hours!
Slice the cookies 1/8 of an inch thick. Place on a cookie sheet that is lightly buttered or lined with parchment. I use the Silpat sheet. Bake in a 375 degree oven for 10 minutes. let sit on sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a rack to cool.
Thanks mom, for giving me your recipes! I definitely feel some heart hunger when I think of you:)
A little bit about Heart Hunger
It’s normal to emotionally eat, through the holidays, and at any time. We are emotional beings. Mindful Eating addresses the many types of hunger we experience. I work through 9 types of hunger with women who want to let go of dieting and still pursue health.
AND … don’t the holidays bring about A LOT of emotion? Absolutely.
All kinds of emotions, such as loss, joy, contentment and loneliness.
What if you are missing someone who is not here for Christmas, or ANY cultural celebration that you may have?
It weighs on the heart, doesn’t it.
And this is where Heart Hunger comes in, within the area of Mindful Eating.
Heart hunger can create wanting, longing and cravings.
There is much debate in the nutrition world that cravings are a terrible thing. I know that cravings leave clues to the type of HUNGER you are experiencing.
Foods, and the connection of traditions, are basis of many celebrations, in MANY cultures.
You do not have to be a Christmas person to feel this.
Heart hunger comes from the desire to be loved and cared for, according to Dr Jan Chozen Bays, author of Mindful Eating. The heart hunger that I experience, in relation to food, can be from loss. I might miss my mothers cookies, or my partner’s fudge.
Certain foods evoke memory.
Sometimes we eat to change the state of our feelings, even subconsciously. We may feel lonely for someone, and want to evoke their memory, and only a food will do that. We may feel lonely, and try to feed that loneliness, but the hole can never be filled.
Becoming curious about they type of hunger that you are experiencing, will allow you to connect your emotions to eating habits.
And when you are aware of the emotion behind your craving for a food, you can make a conscious choice, to have the food, or to shift those feelings in another way.
Would you comment below with the food that brings you the most comforting memory?
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