These fun Cinnamon Roll Cookies are cute, unique, and surprisingly simple to make. They taste like buttery soft cinnamon rolls in cookie form and are perfect when paired with a simple vanilla glaze topping! Recipe includes a step-by-step video, showing you exactly how I make them in my own kitchen.
Cinnamon Roll Cookies
What do you get if you marry cinnamon rolls and sugar cookies together?
Only the cutest Cinnamon Roll Cookies, obviously. With perfect cinnamon/sugar swirls, a crisp cookie exterior that gives way to a melt-in-your-mouth, buttery-soft interior, and a sweet vanilla glaze… what more could you ask for, really?
I was originally going to save this recipe for closer to Christmas cookie season (I’ve been trying to get a little ahead on my holiday baking with the baby coming!), but as with my pecan sandies I didn’t have the patience to wait several more months to share this one with you.
Fortunately, cinnamon roll cookies are great any time of the year, but definitely bookmark this one for your Christmas cookie list, too!
How to Make Cinnamon Roll Cookies
- First make your cookie dough by creaming together softened butter and sugars, stirring in an egg yolk and vanilla extract, and then gradually stirring in flour, cornstarch, and salt.
- Form dough into a disc, cover in plastic wrap, and chill for at least 15 minutes.
- Use a rolling pin to roll dough into a 12×10″ rectangle. Spread melted butter over the dough, leaving about a half-inch perimeter un-buttered around the edges.
- Evenly sprinkle brown sugar and cinnamon over the butter.
- Carefully so as not to tear the dough, roll into a tight log. Wrap your cinnamon roll cookie log in wax paper and freeze for at least 15 minutes.
- After freezing, use just a sharp knife to cut into slices just shy of 1/4″ and arrange on a baking sheet.
- Bake until edges are just beginning to turn light golden brown in color.
- Allow cookies to cool, and then drizzle with a simple milk and sugar glaze, if desired.
Tips for Making Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Chilling
This dough can be chilled longer than 15 minutes, and may even need longer if your kitchen is particularly warm. Keep in mind that if you chill significantly longer than 15 minutes (overnight or even for an hour or longer) the dough will need to soften a bit at room temperature before rolling to prevent cracks.
Once you’ve formed your cookie dough “log”, this can also be chilled longer than the 15 minutes indicated, but keep in mind that if you chill it overnight or longer it will become difficult to slice.
Rolling
Make sure that you roll out your cinnamon roll cookie dough on a lightly floured surface so that it doesn’t stick when you go to form it into a log. If it sticks, you’ll end up with cracks and tears in your cookie dough log, which will ruin the cinnamon-swirl effect and can cause the cookies to fall apart. As I’m rolling my dough, if I notice that it’s sticking to the counter even a little bit, I’ll use a spatula to gently help pry it up off of the counter.
Make sure to roll your cookie dough log tightly! If you don’t roll it tightly enough the cinnamon/sugar filling will fall out once you go to slice your cookies.
Once you’ve rolled your dough into a log, you can place this in a split paper towel roll to prevent it from getting a flat bottom as it sits on your freezer shelf. This is not necessary (I only do it for aesthetics — I like nice round cookies!) but it makes for prettier cookies and is a simple trick. I’ve shown this before in my Slice & Bake Cookies and demonstrate this in my video (below the recipe).
When you are ready to slice your cookies, make sure to use a sharp knife to easily cut through them without smashing them (never use a butter knife!).
Glaze
This glaze is almost identical to the one I use on my favorite coffee cake and it’s very simple to make: just whisk together powdered sugar with a bit of milk and vanilla extract.
You can use a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the cookies, you can dip them face first in the glaze (you might want to double the recipe if you go this route), or you can decorate them by filling a small ziploc bag with glaze and then snipping off a small corner and drizzling neatly over the cookies. The glaze will harden enough to eat without making a mess in about 15-20 minutes, but if you intend to stack these cookies or pack them away, I recommend giving the glaze at least an hour to firm up completely.
Enjoy!
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Let’s bake together! Be sure to check out my video at the bottom of the recipe where I’ll show you exactly how I make these Cinnamon Roll Cookies in my own kitchen! If you enjoy watching, make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’ve already uploaded over 150 recipe videos that you can watch for free!
Cinnamon Roll Cookies
Ingredients
COOKIES
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened (226g)
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar 70g
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar tightly packed (70g)
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 280g
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
FILLING
- 1/3 cup light brown sugar firmly packed (70g)
- 2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter very soft or melted
GLAZE
- 1 cup powdered sugar 125g
- 4-6 teaspoons milk
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
COOKIES
- Combine butter and sugar in a large bowl and use an electric mixer (or stand mixer) to beat until creamy and well-combined.
- Stir in egg yolk and vanilla extract.
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl whisk together your flour, cornstarch, and salt.
- Gradually, with mixer on low-speed, stir dry ingredients into wet until everything is completely combined.
- Form dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
FILLING/ASSEMBLY
- While dough is chilling, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt in a small bowl and whisk until completely combined. Set aside.
- Once dough has chilled, transfer to a clean, lightly floured surface and roll into 12x10 rectangle (dough should be just over ⅛” thick).
- Spread melted butter evenly over the dough, leaving about ½” of space un-buttered around the perimeter.
- Sprinkle brown sugar/cinnamon mixture over butter.
- Starting with the longer edge, carefully and tightly roll dough into a log. Once you get to the end, pinch the dough to make a seam. Wrap in wax paper and transfer to freezer and freeze for 15 minutes.
- While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 375F (190C) and line several cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Once dough has chilled and oven has preheated, remove from freezer and use a sharp knife to cut log into slices that are just shy of ¼” thick.
- Carefully transfer slices to prepared cookie sheet, spacing 2” apart.
- Bake on 375F (190C) for 10-12 minutes or until edges of cookies are just beginning to turn a light golden brown.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet.
- If desired, drizzle cookies with glaze once cooled.
TO MAKE GLAZE
- To make the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract. Start with just 4 teaspoons of milk and add just a small splash more as needed until proper consistency is reached -- if you lift your whisk out of the glaze it should leave a thin ribbon that when it falls back into the bowl should hold its shape for a few seconds before dissolving back into the rest of the icing.
- Use a spoon or a small ziploc bag with the corner snipped off to drizzle glaze over cookies.
- Allow glaze to harden (15-30 minutes) and then serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
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Laura F. says
Hi Sam,
Unfortunately I had the same problem as everyone else. I followed the recipe exactly and everything was perfect up until rolling the dough into a log. It was literally impossible, and I tried 3 times. Do you have any suggestions on what we’re doing wrong or can do differently?
Sam says
Hi Laura! I am so sorry you are having issues. What is going wrong when you try to roll it that is giving you an issue? If it’s too dry and crumbly I think there may be too much flour in your dough. If there’s something else going on, let me know and I may be able to help troubleshoot. 🙂
KarrieF says
Very tasty made the dough and filling last night and baked this morning. But I agree with the suggestion to cut the icing in half. I didn’t use all that it made, but man is it rich. I will definitely make again but less frosting. Thanks for sharing!
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed, thank you for commenting! 🙂
Anon says
There were really gooood! But my dough was crumbly and I followed the weight measurements and it did not roll up easily. Made it work though just not the prettiest looking.
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so sorry that you are experiencing an issue. It sounds like too much flour was added. Over measuring your flour is one of the biggest mistakes in baking so I have created a guide on how to measure flour properly that can be used as a reference for next time. Thanks for trying my recipe. :_
Elena McFadden says
THESE COOKIES ARE AMAZING!!! I screwed up, and had dough so flaky i couldn’t even roll it at first… so I just smashed my dough disk in between wax paper, flattened it into a rectangle-ish shape, smeared the cinnamon butter mix on it, and used the wax paper to roll it! After mega failing to roll it into any usable shape before this actually worked perfectly AND allowed to roll it super tight. The cookies turned out absolutely perfect👌
Sam says
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies, Elena! 🙂
Rosellen says
These cookies were sooooo good !! I made them exactly as you did …no cracking or splitting happened …just pure delicious cinnamon roll cookies !! I glazed them of course and the flavors just popped !! Thank you for posting this with your how to video as I followed right along with you …maybe that’s why they came out so awesome ? I think so !!! Love them and you for all your great recipes and your pleasantness to watch 😋♥️
Sugar Spun Run says
Thank you so much, Rosellen! I am so glad that you found the video helpful and that followed right along. I am so happy that your cookies turned well and that you enjoyed them. Thanks for commenting! 🙂
Tiffany says
My dough cracked but I still managed to sloppily roll it up and slice and bake these cookies. They were really good though, even without the glaze! My family loved them. Next time, I’ll probably use less flour in the dough because I think I over measured.
Sugar Spun Run says
Hello, Tiffany! If cracking occurred, I would have to agree “too much flour.” Regardless, I am so glad that you enjoyed the cinnamon roll cookies. Thanks for commenting. 🙂
Gracie says
I couldn’t roll my cookies. The dough cracked, so I cut them into small squares and called them “Cinna-Bites”. They taste good, but they didn’t turn out how I would’ve liked them to. Is there a reason why they didn’t roll? I didn’t have any cornstarch, so I added some extra flour. Is that why they broke? Thank you ❤️
Sugar Spun Run says
Hello, Gracie! I am so sorry that your cookies cracked. Yes, this is a result of too much flour. Too much flour can cause this to happen and make your cookies crumbly. The cornstarch helps the cookie keep its shape and makes the dough soft and tender. Regardless, I hope that the cinnamon roll cookies still tasted delicious. 🙂
Sadie says
This is my second review of these delicious cookies. I tweaked the recipe just slightly. The tweaks didn’t change the flavor, but it did change the texture. They were more melt-in-your-mouth this time, thus the 5 star rating. I subbed superfine sugar for the granulated, and used a mix of all-purpose and cake flour (180 grams all-purpose + 100 grams cake flour). I omitted the cornstarch. The dough rolled without any cracking. Excellent!
Sugar Spun Run says
I am so happy that you enjoyed the cinnamon roll cookies, Sadie! Thank you for your review, I appreciate the feedback. 🙂
Sadie says
These are very good. The texture is similar to a shortbread cookie. They have a tender, buttery crispness. I followed the recipe with no deviations, and used the weight measures. The dough rolled easily into a rectangle, but cracked in many spots when I rolled it into the log. The filling seeped out through the cracks and I had to stuff it back in and then try and seal the cracks as I rolled. I thought I may have to throw the log out and start over, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it sliced cleanly after chilling in the freezer, and the swirl was well defined. The cookies baked for 17 minutes before they were set and lightly browned. My yield was 15 cookies, which is considerably less than the recipe noted. I added 1 tablespoon of corn syrup to the glaze and drizzled the cookies with the glaze before freezing them.
Sugar Spun Run says
Hello, Saddie! I am happy that you enjoyed the Cinnamon Roll Cookies. I am sorry to hear that you only yielded 15 cookies from your batch. Next time, I recommend cutting them slightly thinner, 1/4″ thick. Thank you for your comment. 🙂
Sadie says
I was happy with the size! We like big cookies!!
Sugar Spun Run says
Awesome! I am glad you enjoyed them! 🙂
Marie-Ange says
These cookies are really delicious and so beautiful! They didn’t last long! Thanks for the recipe! 🙂
Sugar Spun Run says
Thanks, Marie-Ange! I am so glad that they turned out so well and everyone loved them! 🙂
JUDY VARGAS says
I was interested in ur showing how to make cinnamon roll cookies so I copied the reciepe. I love making cookies desserts bars cake pies plus making banana bread and different hot dishes and cold salads (macaroni salad) so I would like to ask you if you can send me recipe book to Judy
Sam says
Hi Judy! I do not have a recipe book at the moment. All of my recipes can be found for free on my website. If you have a printer, you can print off any recipe you’d like. 🙂