Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies

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Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies with vanilla icing are the perfect cookie to bake this holiday season! A sweet vanilla sugar cookie rolled with the most delicious cinnamon sugar filling, refrigerated, sliced, and baked until they’re just beginning to color. Each cookie is then finished with a light drizzle of vanilla icing. They’re the perfect make-ahead cookie to bake for this weekend, your Christmas cookie boxes, or just when you’re craving cinnamon rolls, but don’t want to make them. Every bite is soft, sweet, cinnamon-y, and tastes JUST LIKE a cinnamon roll, or maybe even a bit better!

About The Recipe

‘Tis the season for all things cookies! I know we’re all still probably full from Thanksgiving, but I am just so excited for all things Christmas. We’ve already started switching decorations over from Fall to Christmas and are getting everything ready for the tree!

For us, cinnamon rolls are kind of synonymous with this time of year. So, we actually were originally talking about sharing a cinnamon roll recipe today, but we realized it has been almost a month since we shared our last cookie recipe…and with December in just 3 days, we knew we wanted to share another cookie recipe ASAP!

Which is how the idea for these cookies came to be. We combined our love for cinnamon rolls and cookies to create, what we consider, one of the best cookie recipes on our blog!

Though, getting it to this was a little more difficult than we thought. We immediately knew we needed to do a pinwheel-style cookie, but we thought that we should do just a dry cinnamon-sugar mixture as the filling…this did not work at ALL!

Our cookies were a mess and we almost scrapped the idea after that attempt.

Until we decided to just try and fill the cookies with our normal cinnamon roll filling. Turns out, that’s exactly what these cookies needed! The filling holds tight, stays after cooling, and tastes SO. GOOD.

Oh, and when you finish these cookies with vanilla icing, it’s honestly just like having a cinnamon roll! Every bite is buttery, cinnamon-y, sweet, and just melts in your mouth.

If you only bake one cookie this holiday season, it NEEDS to be these cinnamon roll sugar cookies!

Reasons You Will Love These Cinnamon Roll Cookies

• So much easier to make than actual cinnamon rolls.
• Taste almost JUST LIKE a cinnamon roll.
• Buttery, sweet, cinnamon-y, and just melts in your mouth.
• A slice and bake cookie! Which makes it the perfect make-ahead cookie for this Christmas season.
• The perfect addition to your holiday cookie boxes.

Equipment Needed

• Mixing Bowls
• Hand Mixer
• Parchment Paper
• Rolling Pin
• Offset Spatula
• Sheet Pans
• Sharp Knife
• Whisk

Ingredients

(Full ingredient amounts and instructions can be found in the recipe card at the bottom of the post)

For The Cookies:

• Unsalted Butter – Adding richness, tenderness, and structure, unsalted butter also has a bright, fresh flavor.
• Granulated Sugar – Because we wanted more structure and less spread, we opted to use granulated sugar to sweeten these cookies.
• Large Egg – Acting as the binder that holds the dough together, egg also contributes to the tenderness.
• Vanilla Extract – Adding a subtle undertone, vanilla extract is the perfect choice to enhance the flavor.
• All-Purpose Flour – Using plain all purpose flour is the way to go here. The protein content gives the dough the structure it needs.
• Salt – Just a little bit of salt enhances the flavor.
• Baking Powder – A leavening agent like baking powder not only helps these cookies rise, it helps keep them from spreading too much.

For The Filling:

• Unsalted Butter – The element that holds the filling together, unsalted butter also adds flavor and richness.
• Brown Sugar – We chose to use brown sugar because it has a deeper, richer flavor and it melts easily to help form the gooey filling.
• Ground Cinnamon – We used Vietnamese cinnamon because it has a strong, sweet flavor.
• Salt – A bit of salt enhances the cinnamon flavor.
• All-Purpose Flour – In this filling, all purpose flour acts as a thickener and stabilizer to make the filling lush and gooey.
• Vanilla Extract – Adding a subtle undertone, vanilla extract is the perfect choice to enhance the cinnamon flavor in this filling.

For The Icing:

• Powdered Sugar – Because it melts easily, powdered sugar perfectly sweetens this icing.
• Whole Milk – We used whole milk because we wanted a neutral flavor and just a tiny bit of richness.
• Vanilla Extract – The main flavor for the icing, vanilla extract perfectly complements the flavor of the cookie.

How To Make Cinnamon Roll Cookies

Step 1: Make the filling

Cream butter in small bowl with an electric mixer.

Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, flour, and vanilla. Beat until well combined and creamy. Set aside.

Step 2: Make the cookie dough

In a medium bowl, beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 1-2 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla. Beat until well incorporated.

Add flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix only to blend.

Step 3: Roll and fill

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured piece of parchment. Roll into a 9 x 11 inch rectangle.

Spread filling over entire surface of dough.

Starting with the long side, roll up jellyroll-style. Wrap up in parchment, tucking ends under. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Step 4: Slice and bake

Slice dough roll into ½ inch slices. Place on prepared sheet pans. Bake for 12 minutes, or until just starting to color around the edges.

Step 5: Make icing

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Beat until smooth.

Drizzle over cooled cookies.

How To Store

There are a couple of different ways you can store these cookies! Once the dough is made and rolled, you can keep the cookies wrapped in parchment and in the fridge for 1-2 days. You can also freeze the log of cookie dough in a zip-top freezer safe bag for up to 2 months (you can also freeze individual slices and bake them when you’re craving a cookie)!

Once the cookies are baked, you can keep them in a zip top bag or airtight container and freeze for 1-2 months.

Looking for more recipes like this? Here are a few you may like: No Yeast Cinnamon Rolls, Pecan Pie Bars, Apple Walnut and Oatmeal Cookies, Cranberry Pistachio Slice and Bake Cookies, Danish Wedding Cookies

Expert Tips

• Be careful to not over-mix the cookie dough!
• Try and roll the cookies as tight as you can.
• Don’t skip refrigerating the dough!
• You can refrigerate the dough overnight, if desired.
• To get evenly sized cookies, use a ruler or tape measure to ensure each cookie is the same size.
• Make sure to use a sharp knife to cut the cookies!
• For clean cuts, be sure to clean your knife after each slice.
• Let the cookies cool on the pan before moving them.

When you make these Cinnamon Roll Sugar Cookies, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.

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