| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 5 hr |
| Prep: | 4 hr 45 min |
| Cook: | 15 min |
| Yield: | about 36 cookies |
Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon extract (optional)
- 1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa powder
- 3/4 teaspoon red food coloring
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon sanding sugar (clear or red), plus more for coating
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Beat the butter and granulated sugar in a large bowl with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. Reduce the mixer speed to low; add the flour mixture and beat until just combined. Remove half of the dough and wrap in plastic wrap. Add the cinnamon extract, cocoa powder and food coloring to the remaining dough and beat until incorporated; wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate both pieces of dough until firm, about 1 hour.
- Dust the dough with flour and roll out each piece on parchment paper into a 10-by-11-inch rectangle. Flip the red dough on top of the plain dough; remove the top piece of parchment and trim the edges. Sprinkle the ground cinnamon and sanding sugar on top. Starting from a short end, tightly roll up the dough, using the parchment to help; roll the log in sanding sugar. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours or overnight.
- Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Slice the log crosswise 1/4 inch thick; arrange the slices about 1 1/2 inches apart on the baking sheets. Bake, switching the position of the pans halfway through, until slightly puffed and lightly golden on the bottom, 12 to 15 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer to racks to cool.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 36 servings |
| Calories | 77 |
| Total Fat | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Carbohydrates | 9 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Sugar | 4 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Cholesterol | 15 mg |
| Sodium | 24 mg |
Reviews
I like the taste & appearance of these cookies. As others posted, parchment paper is a MUST! I wanted to use my new plastic measuring sheet instead of parchment paper & had difficulty layering the dough. It’s true, when rolling the dough out to 10″ x 11″, the dough will be thin. Because I didn’t use the parchment paper, I didn’t get the exact pinwheel effect, but was close to it. You have to allow chilling time after making the dough & after rolling the dough. I actually chilled the dough too long after making the dough & had to allow it to warm up before rolling. Then I refrigerated the dough overnight, sliced & baked. My cookies were red using regular cocoa. I finally found the cinnamon extract at Sur La Table. I think I would try marbleizing the dough should I make the cookies again.
Adding the cocoa powder turns the dough dark enough that the best red color I could achieve with red gel food coloring was muddy red.Not even close to the bright red in the photo. Very disappointing.
This is a very impressive looking cookie and very tasty too. The dough needs to be chilled in order to roll properly. If it is too difficult to manage after you begin rolling, just put the dough on a cookie sheet and put in the fridge until chilled more. After stacking the dough, I just patted it into a rectangle with my hands instead of cutting off the edges (I hate wasting the extra. It does not need to be perfect. Make sure you chill again before cutting. After cutting the cookies, you can reshape them on the cookie sheet to get them more round and they will be perfect.
Two words for this cookie: epic failure. The dough was easy to make, but the assembly was rough. It was very difficult to shape the dough in a rectangle. Also, when rolling the dough to the specified 10×11, the dough becomes very thin. It becomes quite difficult to get one layer on top of the other regardless of the parchment paper. So after you finally get it into a log shape, and bake it, the cookie comes out very dry. Too much manipulation to get it into the roll log and it comes out tough. I had made the mistake of doubling the recipe and was going to make two rolled logs, but after the first was an utter disaster, I took the dough from the second log and just rolled it into balls, flattened it with my hand, and sprinkled sanding sugar and cinnamon on top. Those were a lot better than the rolled ones! Definitely a lot of work to make the cookie that ends up tasting dry. NOT a keeper!
Pretty, buttery cookie that tastes as good as it looks! I personally would have preferred a stronger taste of cinnamon. I did not use red food coloring for the inside layer–I substituted additional cocoa. The result was a shortbread-like cookie with hints of chocolate and cinnamon. The red sugar is a must; it almost gives the illusion of a jelly roll and adds a hint of sweetness to the cinnamon.