Fresh from the Oven: Cinnamon Spirals

Hello All-

Ready for some more kitchen "stuff"?  I made some awesome cookies this week, and I wanted to share the recipe and some pointers with you all.  The recipe is for Cinnamon Spirals, and it comes from the Robin Hood Flour website.

This recipe is proof of why you should always read your recipe before starting to bake.  The first step is to preheat your oven...okay, that's pretty common to see as step one.  The problem is that these are refrigerator cookies, and you don't bake them for at least another few hours, if not the next day! 

Skipping Step One and moving right along, it is all pretty straightforward.  The actual dough is easy to prepare, and the filling is too.  The trouble I had was with the rolling out of the dough and the rolling of the combined dough and filling into a jellyroll shape.  I used parchment paper to roll the dough out on, and I found that the creases it made in the dough caused everything to split once it was jellyroll time.  So, be sure that you don't have any impressions in your dough after you roll it out.  Also, my kitchen tends to be warmer than most (due to ridiculously hot lighting fixtures), so I found that my dough was not rolling nicely for me.  Be sure to keep everything as cold as possible, and I think you'll have better luck.

The recipe says that you can chill your plastic wrapped jelly rolls for up to 24 hours.  This is what I did.  Again, I wanted things to be as cold as possible when it was time to slice.  I also only removed one roll at a time from the fridge so the other one wouldn't warm up too quickly. 

As you can see from the top photo, these little darlings sliced up really well.  Make sure your knife is nice and sharp and you'll be good to go.  I found that cutting straight down worked best, rather than slicing it like bread.  The one time I moved the knife, the roll started to come undone. 

I went a bit thick on my cookies, because...well...do I really need a reason??  Thirteen minutes in the oven was just enough to get them golden brown.

My first attempt yielded 4 dozen-ish.  In all honesty, I have about 3 dozen presentable cookies and 1 dozen "tasters."  The website says that these freeze well, but I don't think they'll last long in my house. 

All in all, these are great, and I'll be making them again...and again...and again!  They have a similar taste to a family favorite that my Mom makes.  When we were little, she would take any leftover pie crust pieces, roll them out, fill with brown sugar, cinnamon and pats of butter, and fold it all up.  Vent the top with some fork pricks, bake at 325 until golden brown, and once cooled, slice into bars.  She always called them "Pets", but we always called them yummy!!! 

Happy Baking!

Sharon