12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS COOKIES: DAY 3 - Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Hi, my name is Jillian and I’m a Cinnabon-aholic.

I can’t walk by a Cinnabon without grabbing one of those hot, gooey, delicious rolls. The smell calls to me. You know what I’m talking about…that heavenly cinnamon scent that comes wafting by and jumbles your senses whenever you’re near the food court at the mall. Yeah, THAT scent…the intoxicating one!

I’ve walked through a lot of malls in my day and I just don’t think you should qualify as a “mall” if you don’t have a Cinnabon. A day of shopping just isn’t complete without a Cinnabon. You take it home, sit on the couch looking at all your new treasures and enjoy your Cinnabon. Perfection!

I remember when we moved to Southern Virginia after Adrian joined the Navy. We moved into an apartment in downtown Norfolk that was one street over from the mall. I was having a hard time with the transition, so I walked over to the mall for a pick-me-up. Alas, there was NO CINNABON! I remember walking back to our building crying because my family was all the way back in California, Norfolk was hot and humid, I hated everything, and to make matters worse, THERE WAS NO CINNABON!! I also had major pregnancy hormones that I didn’t know I had since I didn’t yet know I was pregnant with Liev…but we’ll stick with the “No Cinnabon” story for the purpose of this post.

Once I calmed down (took the pregnancy test that would change my entire life) I realized that I should just learn to make them myself, and that’s exactly what I did. Well, they’re close at least.

But the bad thing about homemade cinnamon rolls is they take forever and require you making an un-godly mess in your kitchen. By the time they’re out of the oven, they just don’t seem worth all the trouble. There’s just something about opening the lid to your Cinnabon box, scraping the cream cheese frosting off the top of the lid, devouring the roll, and then tossing the evidence in the trash. No mess…only sticky delicious goodness. So on to Plan B.

PLAN B: Cinnamon Roll Cookies

I stumbled upon a cinnamon roll cookie recipe my first Christmas in Norfolk and thought I’d give it a try. While they was perfectly adequate, they were much too sweet, and missing the key ingredient—cream cheese frosting.

I started tinkering with the recipe and over time I’ve developed quite a tasty and relatively mess-free Cinnabon cinnamon roll cookie. I make these guys regularly and actually always have a roll of dough in the freezer ready to be sliced and baked at a moment’s notice.

They’re the perfect Christmas morning treat, or better, the perfect treat for Santa! They’re easy to make, the dough freezes well, and they fit into a cup of milk for dipping…yeah, Santa would approve!

CINNAMON ROLL COOKIES

For the filling:

· 1/2 cup sugar

· 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon

For the dough:

· 3 cups all-purpose flour

· 2 tsp baking powder

· 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

· ½ tsp salt

· 1 cup butter, softened

· 1 cup dark brown sugar

· 2 eggs, room temperature

· 1 ½ tsp vanilla

For the frosting/icing

· 4 oz. cream cheese, softened

· ¼ cup butter, softened

· 1 cup confectioners’ sugar

· 1 tsp vanilla

· Whole milk, to thin if needed

To make the cookies:

In a small bowl combine the sugar and 2 Tbsp ground cinnamon. Set aside.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition.

Mix in vanilla.

Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined (do not overmix!)

On a piece of parchment paper, roll out the dough into a rectangle (about ¼-inch in thickness) and sprinkle half the sugar/cinnamon mixture on the surface of the dough.

Roll the dough in a log. Cover the outside of your dough log with the remaining sugar/cinnamon mixture.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 4 hours.

Preheat oven to 350°

Slice the dough into ½-inch medallions, place on parchment lined baking sheet and bake 8-10 minutes (longer if you want a crispier cookie…I like these bad boys soft and ooey gooey!)

Let cool completely before frosting.

To make the frosting/icing:

In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat the cream cheese and butter together until light and fluffy.

Add the confectioners’ sugar a little at a time (to avoid a giant sugar cloud in your kitchen) and beat until smooth.

Beat in vanilla.

If you want it to be more of an icing (for decorative purposes like I’ve done for the photos in this post), add milk a little at a time until you reach the consistency you want.

If you’re not wanting a cookie presentation, just grab a warm cookie off the cooling rack and dip it straight into the bowl of frosting…like you would chips and queso!

Go ahead…TREAT YO’ SELF!!