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!
Video
Nutrition
Treat yourself to a FREE E-BOOK!
JUDY VARGAS says
August 7, 2019 at 10:58 pmI 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
August 8, 2019 at 9:03 amHi 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. 🙂