Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Whoa…time seemed to have flown these last few months. Sorry I have been essentially dead to my own blog. But the few of you who actually visit it probably has already made fun of me for this. Things here have gotten to a level of crazy that I can’t really describe. I have begun hunting for a postdoctoral position (more research after I get my degree) and have also begun writing my thesis. That has so far been kind of a disaster. I think I spend more time deleting than any actual writing. Oh well, I hope that changes soon because I don’t think you can turn in blank pages for your major parts of the thesis. Aside for procrastinating from work, the major reason I was motivated to write up a post is that I made the most adorable cookie last week! A couple of graduate students and I have been working really hard trying to complete a set of experiments so for a little treat I wanted to bring in some cookies. On of the grad students adores essentially everything thing cinnamon. For a few weeks she has been having/giving into a cinnamon roll craving. Inspired by her love for cinnamon rolls I found a cinnamon roll COOKIE recipe that I just had to try out.

These cookies are little bit more work than a typical drop cookie where you just beat the dough together and spoon it out but on par for any type of rolled out cookie. I absolutely loved these cookies and think that they are worth every extra minute it takes to make them. The cookies are soft and sweet with a burst of butter, brown sugar, cinnamon flavor goodness. They are delicious without the frosting but they are amazing with a cream cheese frosting drizzled on top. This recipe was adapted from Paige’s Pantry blog.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Ingredients:

Cookie Dough:
½ c sour cream
1 c sugar
½ c butter, softened
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla
3 c flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt

Filling:
½ c butter, softened
1 c. packed brown sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

1. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
2. Add eggs one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl between each addition. Before mixing in vanilla and sour cream.
3. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt. Finally, beat in flour once cup at a time.
4. The dough will be sticky at this point. But wrap it in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator. The original recipe calls for chilling for 2 hours but mine sat overnight because I ran out of time.

5. While the dough is chilling, go ahead and make the filling. Beat all the ingredients together until fluffy and set aside.
6. After the dough has been chilled, divide it into three equal portions. Take one of the portions and put the other two back into the fridge. Keeping the dough chilled while you are not working on it will make it easier to work with.
7. Preheat oven to 350 degreees Farenheit.
8. Roll out each portion into a 1/8 inch thick rectangle (or as close as you can make it…mine turned out kind of like ovals). You can either do this with a generous amount of flour on your countertop or you can sandwich the dough between two sheets of plastic wrap. If you roll out the dough with plastic wrap, be careful and pull the plastic wrap off every once in awhile so that it doesn’t get caught into folds of the dough.
9. Once you have your rectangle, spread a third of the filling on it. Roll the dough up length wise. Try to roll it tight so that when the filling melts in the oven you don’t have open spaces between the coils of sugar cookie dough. Place the rolled up dough in the refrigerator for a few minutes, this will help the next step.
10. Cut the logs into ½ inch pieces and place on a greased baking sheet or a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake for about 7-8 minutes. Try not to overcook these because the filling will ooze out all over your baking sheet.
11. Once the cookies are cool, it is optional (but highly recommended) to frost with cream cheese frosting. YUM.

I don’t think that I can say enough how much I loved making and serving up these cookies. Although some of them didn’t turn out a beautiful as the others did.
I think it had something to do with how tightly I rolled the dough and I may or may not have overcooked the first batch by a minute. But even with a few oopses in there these cinnamon roll cookies were a huge hit and disappeared within a day…maybe a day and a half. These cookies are delicious buttery cinnamon tastiness and the next time you have the hankering for a sugar cookie you should try out this variation. You will not be disappointed. Happy eating!