Date cookies

Start by creaming the butter and the brown sugar all together; then beat in the eggs and the vanilla

Add all your dry ingredients and mix very well until they are completely incorporated.

Divide your dough into half; then place each half of the dough into a gallon zip-top bag and press it down flat; then refrigerate for about 1 hour.

In the meantime; make the dates filling and to do that; place the dates; the water; the sugar and the salt in a medium pan over a medium high heat and bring to a boil

Lower the heat and let the jam boil for about 10 to 15 minutes; then remove from the heat and stir in the chopped walnuts and set it aside to cool

When the dough is fully chilled, roll each half out into a rectangle of about ¼ inch of thickness so that each rectangle is about 9x12 over a sheet of parchment paper

Spread one half of the prepared cooled dates jam across each of the cut rectangles of the cookie dough and make sure to spread to the edges.

Working from the long edge, use the prepared parchment paper to roll the dough and the filling into the shape of a log.

Start working from the long edge; then tuck the dough into the prepared jam; keep rolling and tuck in as your roll the log

The roll with have a swirl of dough in the end right at the centre; the final form will be that of a pinwheel

Wrap the logs and let them chill for about 6 hours

When you are ready to bake; cut the logs into slices of about 1/3”; then place over a cookie sheet leaving at least about 2 inches between each two

Bake at a temperature of 400° for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool for about 5 minutes before removing to a cooling rack

Serve and enjoy your cookies!