Yup

Though I had hoped to spend part of my Sunday painting, I ended up baking, wrapping, and packaging the entire day away. I had planned to send a few friends and loved ones some homemade treats along with their holiday gifts (in addition to the goodie boxes I had in mind for my coworkers), but I didn't really think much about how much baking that would actually require. Not that I'd ever complain about having lots of baking to do ... in fact, I seek out reasons to do more baking than is needed for my household of two.

I started off by making some chocolate-covered pretzels. These weren't just any pretzels, mind you ... these were my very favorite honey wheat pretzels. I'll be the first to admit that I have very little experience with dipping things in chocolate (though I have lots of experience with eating things that have been dipped in chocolate), but these were actually super easy and turned out perfectly. Mmmm ... chocolate and salt.

I also whipped up a quadruple batch of L's favorite banana bread, made with roasted bananas and a cinnamon-sugar crust. I just don't do bananas, but L assured me that this was a particularly fantastic batch. And trust me, he takes his job as my official taste tester very seriously.

The last goodie on my list was a batch of cookies. I wanted to do something simple in terms of flavor but with a lot of visual appeal. Oh, and there had to be a note of chocolate somewhere in there, as requested by my Grammy. Here's what I came up with.

Chocolate & Vanilla Bean Pinwheel Cookies

Adapted from 365 Great Cookies & Brownies

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
• 1 square (1 ounce) unsweetened baking chocolate, melted
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1 or 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl, mixing thoroughly. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Add the flour mixture and blend well. Divide dough in half in 2 bowls. Add melted chocolate to one half; add 1 teaspoon vanilla and seeds from vanilla bean to the other half. Mix well. Cover each bowl and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, until firm.

Roll out each piece of dough between 2 pieces of wax paper into 8 x 12-inch rectangles. Place 1 rectangle on top of the other and roll from the long side to create a 12-inch roll. Wrap in wax paper and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a sharp knife, cut dough into 1/4-inch slices. Arrange approximately 3 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Sprinkle the cookies lightly with turbinado sugar. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Remove from oven, let stand 5 minutes, then move to a rack to cool completely.