Notes: I've always enjoyed baking out of this book, as many of the recipes are over-the-top and loaded with chocolate. It's also rare to see a cookie recipe calling for IQF cherries, so my curiosity was piqued.
I started with the cherry dough, omitting the food colouring, and substituting Kirschwasser for the cherry extract. The recipe doesn't say whether to drain the thawed cherries: I kept the liquid. Rolling the dough into a 10×18" rectangle wasn't too difficult, as the dough is very soft. Use a measuring tape or ruler as the suggested dimensions will help you produce the specified yield. The chocolate dough was even easier. Just remember to melt the chocolate during your mise en place as it needs to be cool before incorporating into the dough.
The author gives very detailed instructions for how to roll the individual doughs but only says to "carefully invert" the chocolate onto the cherry dough. A large rectangle of soft dough is not the easiest to flip without it breaking. Once it's flipped, it's impossible to align the rectangles. I ended up trimming the overlap and patching it onto any uncovered parts. Make sure to press tightly as you roll to avoid having any air gaps in the spiral.
After the chill in the refrigerator, I took out the log and trimmed the edges, and ended up with a cylinder exactly 8 inches long. Cutting each slice into approximately a 3/8" width, I ended up with just over 24 cookies. These spirals don't puff in the oven, so it's fine to place them close together.
The finished cookies are soft and buttery, like a richly flavoured shortbread. Although the pink dough was speckled with bits of real fruit, the cherry flavour wasn't that noticeable. I like the idea of this cookie, but would try with perhaps an orange flavour next time?
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