Cinnamon roll cookies

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This article was published 21/12/2011 (5133 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From Karen Manitowich, a favourite holiday recipe that offers a cookie twist on the cinnamon roll.

Cinnamon Rolls

228 g (1 cup) softened butter or margarine
114 g (4 oz or 1/2 cup) cream cheese, softened
175 ml (3/4 cup) white sugar
1 egg
5 ml (1 tsp) vanilla
550 ml (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
2 ml (1/2 tsp) baking soda
1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt
about 57 g (1/4 cup) melted butter
175 ml (3/4 cup) brown sugar
30 ml (2 tbsp) cinnamon

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, beat butter, cream cheese and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt. Add to butter mixture and mix well. Roll into a ball and chill dough for 1 hour. Roll dough between two pieces of well-floured wax paper until 6 mm (1/4 in) thick and shaped in a rectangle about 22×33 (9×13 in). Brush with melted butter. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar and cinnamon and then sprinkle over dough. Beginning at a long end, roll up like a jellyroll. Chill dough log about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 175C (350F) and prepare cookie sheets by greasing or lining with parchment paper. Slice log into cookies about 1.25 cm (1/2 in) thick. Arrange on prepared cookie sheets and bake 10-12 minutes or until light golden on bottom. Cool on rack. Yields about 4 dozen.

Tester’s notes: The cream cheese really adds flavour and richness to this delicious cookie, but the creamy dough was a bit tricky to work with. The initial recipe didn’t specify rolling techniques. I tried a floured board and made a mess. (A delicious mess, but still.) Then I tried wax paper, which was also messy. Finally, I tried really well-floured wax paper. Success! Just be sure that the dough lifts easily and isn’t sticking before you put on the butter and cinnamon-sugar, because once they’re on, there’s no re-rolling. I think these cookies are nice just the way they are, but in keeping with the cinnamon roll theme, you could drizzle over an icing sugar or cream cheese glaze.

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

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