Coconut Cream-cheese Pinwheels

I love it when Starbucks start serving their beverage in those red, holiday-ish styrofoams. Sipping my light caramel apple cider, driving and enjoying the beautiful, vast open view of rolling green hills and listening to Christmas jingles on radio..... it's really beginning to look a lot like X'Mas!!

I'll be making Creamcheese Pinwheels today.
You normally see round cookies, square cookies, heart-shaped cookies and during the holidays, gingerbread, stars, X'Mas trees and fun seasonal motives are typically used. The thing that attracted me to this recipe was, first, its shape.
You just don't see pinwheel cookies everyday. The recipe has creamcheese in the dough, creamcheese coconut filling in the middle and the entire cookie is finally topped with sweet fruit jams - I used raspberry. Crunchy and chewy on the outside whilst rich with creamcheese coconut filling in the center and wait, a little fruity sweetness from the jam! Heavenly amalgam of flavors and textures!

Ingredients (recipe from Martha Stewart's Cookies page 61)

Dough:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cups sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 stick unsalted butter
3 ounces cream cheese
1 large egg
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Filling:
3 ounces cream cheese
3 Tblsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 cup white chocolate chips

Glaze:
1 large egg, lightly beaten
Sugar for sprinkling
1/3 cup fruit jam (I used raspberry jam)

Method:
Dough: Whisk together flour, sugar and baking powder in a bowl.
Cream butter and creamcheese on medium-high until flufffy.
Add egg and vanilla.
Reduce mixer speed to low, then add flour mixture. Mix until combined
Divide the dough into half, then pat into disks.
Wrap each disk in clingwrap then refrigerate for at least 2 hours
Preheat oven to 350˚F
Filling: Mix creamcheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy. Fold in coconut and white choc. chips
Remove dough from refrigerator.
Roll out about 1/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface
Cut dough into squares using square cookie cutter (preferably fluted cutters)
Transfer to baking sheets
Place 1 tsp filing in center of each square.
Here comes the most complicated part to explain: using a fluted pastry wheel, cut slits diagonally from each corner towards the center filling. Fold every other tip over to cover filling, forming a pinwheel. Press lightly to seal. Use finger tip to make a well in the top
Lightly brush tops of pinwheels with eggwash. Sprinkle with sugar and bake for ~ 6 minutes
Remove and use the back of a tsp to bake the well a little deeper.
Fill each well with the jam, return to oven and bake for another 6 minutes until edges are golden and cookies are slightly puffed.
Transfer to wire racks to cool.
Can be stored in airtight containers at room temp. up to 3 days.