Trickster Cookies

Tonight I’m helping with stuffing packets for the race my friend has spent the last 6 months of her life organizing. There’s going to be a little crowd of us, so Annie made the request for me to bring a lil’ somethin’ somethin’ for people to snack on.

Sigh… well I GUESS if you really want me to bake…

Obviously it had to be something cute. Like these cinnamon roll sugar cookies…  Yeah. Aren’t they obnoxiously adorable? They appear to be teeny cinnamon buns.

But I’m still that baker who’s scared of using active yeast in a recipe. So until then, I’ll just “cookie-fy” or “cupcake-ify” anything.

These came from the mind of Picky Palate- as do quite a few of the things I’ve attempted. Never has she disappointed me. And I have high standards when it comes to sugar and butter. So that’s saying something.

Normally, I use my grandma’s recipe for sugar cookies. It’s an oldie but a goodie. However, this time around, I used the posted recipe. Just in case. And I think it worked out well- the cookies are less sweet than most sugar cookies I’ve tried. But because you add a little more sugar and butter through the filling and icing, it balances quite nicely.Did I say a little?

I meant a lot.

Paula Deen’s heart probably stopped for a second as this was happening.

The recipe calls for light brown sugar. I only had dark.*Shoulder shrug*

I was also a little more liberal with the cinnamon. Because I do what I want.

Oh and say hello to my piece-o-crap phone!

Heeeeey phone heeeey!  Ugh. It’s slow. It doesn’t accept all messages. And the roller ball thingie keeps popping out. Just die already!

Woah… random tangent…

Be careful to roll it tight so they won’t fall apart as you cut them….And admire my new nail polish color. That is chipping really badly. Whoops.Slice carefully. The cookies had a tendency to unroll if not handled carefully. I tried to smooth the ends of the cookies as much as possible so they wouldn’t separate mid-bake.

The entire apartment smelled like cinnamon rolls.But they’re not.

I’m such a trickster!The icing wasn’t the cream cheese recipe she posted with the cookie recipe. Because I didn’t have enough cream cheese on hand and was too cheap to buy more. So I went with a good ol’ fashioned mix of butter, powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk to taste.

The roommate gave the thumbs up. Which was good. I mean… I ate a couple. But at that point, I was sporting quite the sugar buzz and most likely would have had a hard time critiquing the final product.

If we’re being honest.

Fine, it was three.

Is it bad this was about a half hour before bed and had no issues falling asleep?

It’s probably time to cut back a little on the sugar consumption.

I’ll write it on my list of things to do. Right under “win the lotto”.

See? Progress!

Cinnamon Swirls

Because breakfast happens to be my favorite meal of the day, I constantly am looking for new ideas.

Because I have a week of early days at work coming up, something easy to transport and eat at work will be necessary.

Because I loved the oatmeal quick bread so much, surely there would be something else I could make similar to it?

And possibly better?

What about cinnamon swirl bread?

I had the ingredients. I had the open Friday night.

The only thing I didn’t have was a loaf pan. This really hasn’t been a hinderance until recently. But until I remember to pick one up in one of my Target shopping sprees, I’ll make due with what I’ve got.

The recipe, like many that I prefer, was pretty simple to follow. My only change was to swap out the all-purpose flour with whole wheat- just a personal preference. 

My favorite part was the layering using the cinnamon and sugar mix…Shake it… shake it… shake it like a Polaroid picture…

Maybe it was the lack of a loaf pan, or maybe it was just my mediocre oven, but I took the bread out after 40 minutes thinking it was done.  Good thing I tend to massacre things like chicken breasts to make sure they’re fully cooked through. Because I cut through the middle of the loaf and it definitely was NOT. 

Another 15 minutes later… perfection.You can even see the layers!  Sort of.

The end result had the hint of sweetness of a cinnamon roll.  However, if you are looking for gooey layers- stick with the rolls because the layers are strictly cinnamon and sugar and do not have the buttery component.  Just a heads up on that. 

Although if you’re looking for a variation on that… why not check out the cinnamon roll pancakes I made last summer? They really were like a flattened cinnamon roll…

This bread was meant to be for all next week.  It probably won’t last that long.  But we’ll cross that bridge once we get there…

Happy weekend everyone! I’m off to get as much done as I can today (including a 5-mile run) so I can fully enjoy the Hustle up the Hancock tomorrow AND the Sunday Funday that comes along with it. ;)