Cinnamon Roll Cookies: Breakfast and Dessert

What do you do if there's no chocolate in the house and you want to bake cookies?

1. Go out and buy chocolate chips.
2. Ask your neighbors for some chocolate.
3. Go buy cookies at the store.
4. Find a recipe with the ingredients you have and try it out.

For once, I actually choose number four even though I really kind of wanted chocolatey cookies. It was kind of easy though when I found this recipe from Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice on Pinterest. So take a deep breath and find a new solution to chocolate-less cookies that's worth the time and the effort.

Cinnamon Roll Cookies

From Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice Cinnamon Bun Cookies

Ingredients

• Dough:
• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• Filling:
• 1 large egg white
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• Icing:
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup milk (or heavy cream)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized bowl beat together the sugar, butter, salt, and vanilla for the dough until light and fluffy. Add the flour and stir until the dough comes together.
2. Flatten into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper and refrigerate for about an hour.
3. Flour wax paper or a piece of parchment and roll out the dough into a rectangle. About the size of a cookie sheet.
4. In a bowl whisk together the egg white and the water for the filling until foamy.
5. In another bowl mix the sugar and cinnamon together.
6. Brush the egg white mixture over the dough and evenly sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over the top.
7. Starting with the long edge roll the dough carefully into a log. Seal the edge with any leftover egg white.
8. Wrap this log in wax paper, plastic wrap, or parchment and freeze until firm. You can leave it for a few minutes in the freezer and/or the fridge.
9. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Lightly grease your cookie sheet.
10. Use a sharp knife to cut the log into about 1/2-inch slices and transfer them to the baking sheets.
11. Bake for 12-15 minutes until lightly golden.
12. Cool cookies before icing.
13. Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl and whisk in the milk and vanilla until smooth. Drizzle over the cookies.

My cookies weren't exactly perfect because I used milk rather than heavy cream for the icing. I prefer to use milk though because while it may not be as thick, it's something that you'll probably have around the house and it'll be less fattening. If you want the nice, thick frosting that looks very much like a cinnamon roll then go for the heavy cream. My icing was just a nice layer to give it a little extra sweetness, but you can't really see it as much.

I also learned that wax paper is your friend when making any type of rolled cookie. While this one isn't as dramatic than others I've made, since there aren't multiple layers of dough, it's not as necessary, but it worked well for me for both keeping the dough in the freezer and rolling it out. Just be sure to use plenty of flour on the wax paper and on your hands while rolling it out. I also didn't keep the dough completely in the freezer for the bit that says to "freeze until firm." I added the bit about a few minutes in the freezer and/or the fridge, because that was a good solution for me. Tossed it into the freezer for a bit and then finished it's solidifying in the fridge. The whole time in the freezer might just live you with an impossible-to-cut log.

While it was originally my treat that I could bake without any chocolate, my boyfriend and I devoured these cookies faster than we thought. I couldn't resist them in the morning since they resembled my mom's cinnamon rolls that I loved as a kid. They're sweet, but not too sweet, so it's a great thing to share at parties that most people will enjoy.

Ann Sather - The Cinnamon Roll Story

I first heard of Ann Sather when I moved to Chicago and my brother and sister-in-law wanted to take me out to brunch. I was a nervous freshman in college and didn't know much about what the city had to offer in many aspects and went with whatever they suggested.
They picked me up from campus and drove me to the Ann Sather at 909 W. Belmont, just off the Belmont red line stop. It seemed like a small, strange restaurant when I first entered and we took a seat at a table. I was so innocent and naive then.
They insisted that I had to have the cinnamon rolls. So I picked out my meal, something with eggs, cheese, lots of delicious foods, and they ordered us all cinnamon rolls with our meal. Oh yes, not as a meal, but with our meal. I assumed then that they had to be bite sized or something simple. I was not prepared for what came to our table.
Not just one, but two hand-sized gooey, warm, freshly made cinnamon rolls appeared beside each of our meals. The icing was a sheet of white snow across the fresh roll, dripping carefully down each edge to leave my fingers just a bit sticky. The first bite was fluffy, warm, gooey, and delicious.
A beautiful cinnamon roll has a soft texture, but the icing compliments it with a gooey sweetness. I always pick apart my cinnamon rolls, slowly unrolling and breaking off sections with my fingers. A real cinnamon roll will let me do this without becoming completely covered head to tummy in frosting. This cinnamon roll peeled simply, letting me have each piece and enjoy it until I devoured the next.

So it was easy to decide what to do when my friend wrote on her blog that she wanted an Ann Sather Cinnamon Roll for her birthday. My boyfriend has always insisted that birthdays deserve a bitching birthday breakfast - which for him consists of lots of meat. For my friend and I, a warm sweet comforting treat is a perfect start to the day.
On November 3rd, I woke up, threw on clothes, and walked down Broadway to the Ann Sather at 3411 N. Broadway just as they opened at 7 am. The two men behind the counter were busy setting up and placing hot trays of cinnamon rolls on carts. I ordered two, one for her and one for me, just because they looked so wonderful.

While this particular incident ended up with me standing outside on her stoop with her coffee and cinnamon roll for around 20 minutes before heading home, the cinnamon rolls still manged to keep their delicious taste. After I tricked her into coming over and gave her the breakfast and my present before she went to work, I sat down with my own warm roll. I picked it apart with my fingers and although no longer warm, it still was sticky, fluffy, and tasty. Each piece I pulled out showed the light, fluffy bread that has that cinnamon taste. The icing no longer trickled down the side with warmth, but still felt gooey and sweet as I bit into it.
Ann Sather Cinnamon Rolls can survive the cold fall weather. Take out or dine in, these sweet treats will give you the warm, fresh start to an otherwise cool day.