Rum Butter Cinnamon Swirl Cookies

Nothing says Sunday morning like a fresh batch of Cinnamon Swirl Cookies!(aka cinnamon buns in cookie form).

And nothing smells more like a buttery early morning bakery than the aroma of soft white cookies coming out of the oven! Except these cookies go one step further- with a rich sugary crunch coated in the sweet scent of rum! 

I really couldn’t be more excited about these cookies. I know I said that about my first loves, the Lemony Raspberry Jam Hearts, and maybe also about the Peanut Butter Fudge Stuffed Cookie Bars, but a new exciting cookie always gets me going.

Especially when it’s soft and fluffy and smells like cocktail hour and my favourite bakery at the same time! (and also reminds me of Jack Sparrow and Keira Knightly drunkedly singing on that island in Pirates of the Carribean).

You’re going to love these cinnamon cookies why?

1. They taste like Cinnamon Buns. Without all the yeast and hours of rising time and baking time- aka, all the work.
2. THE RUM. It just adds something really special- a taste you want to wrap your head around as it lingers after the last bite.
3. Soft centre, crispy bottom. The dough of these cookies is soft from sour cream and butter, with a little flake too. The brown sugar filling pools to the bottom of the cookie and caramelises just a bit, making the perfect contrast of soft and crisp in every bite!

How to make Cinnamon Swirl Cookies

These cookies are so easy to make and as long as you have all the ingredients on hand, you can’t really go wrong!

Start with the dough.

1. Start by mixing together the flour and baking powder. If you don’t have a stand mixer(this is my number one kitchen helper and I use it for everything), you can use a large bowl, whisk, and hand mixer for beating the butter in.
2. Next add the sour cream, salt, and butter. Before beginning, make sure to take the butter out of the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes. For pie dough, where you want to see flecks of butter in the dough(for a flaky crust), you use cold butter. For this recipe, we want the butter to incorporate nicely into the flour, and that won’t happen if it is too cold. Once it has started to soften, cut it into cubes and add it to the bowl.
3. Let the mixer do its thing until the dough has come together and is nice and smooth. There should be no bits of butter to be seen! This should take between 30 seconds to a minute.
4. Gently take the dough out of the mixer and form it into a ball, and wrap it in plastic wrap. Pop it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes. If you want to make the dough beforehand, even the day before, just take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before you’re ready to bake, and continue! Chilling the dough helps the cookies keep their shape while baking makes the dough easier to work with when shaping the cookies, so don’t skip this step!

Make the cinnamon rum filling.

Well this is easy. Add all the ingredients to a bowl and mix till it’s nicely combined. Notes on some of the ingredients:

• Brown Sugar- make sure you are using real dark brown sugar– not white sugar or Demerara sugar or golden sugar. The brown sugar is moister and caramelises with a nice toffee undertone.
• Rum- I like to use Captain Morgan Dark Rum for baking. One bottle lasts a longgg time(unless you plan on drinking while baking :P), and this rum is great in tiramisu and other desserts as well, not to mention cocktails!

Shape & Bake!

To get a nice and even bake, first preheat the oven to 350 F, or 175 Celsius.

1. Once the dough has chilled, take it out of the fridge and lightly flour a non stick Silpat baking mat. With a baking mat the dough doesn’t stick and clean up is much easier! If you don’t have one, flour the countertop with a light sprinkle of flour. Cut the dough into half and work one half at a time.
2. Roll out the dough to a rectangle- it doesn’t have to be perfect. If you spread your fingertips out and touch your thumbs together, that is about the length of the rectangle we’re looking for, with one palm in width.
3. Spread half the cinnamon rum filling over the dough, reaching to the shorter edges and just a half inch till the edge farthest away from you.
4. Starting from the long side closest to you, tightly fold over the dough and roll it up. Position the log so the crease is facing down.
5. With a sharp knife, slice the log into rounds about a finger-width long. Turn them over so the inside swirl is facing up, and place them onto a baking sheet lined with a piece of parchment paper.
6. Bake the cookies for 20-25 minutes. Check them after 20, if the tops aren’t yet golden, bake for another 3-5 minutes.

Vanilla Rum Icing

The hardest part about these cinnamon swirl cookies is waiting for them to cool so you can ice them and eat! To make the icing, simply whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, rum, and vanilla extract with a fork until it is nice and smooth. The consistency should be a tad thick but drizzle-able. If it is too thick, add 1/4 tsp of milk at a time and mix it in. 1/4 teaspoon might seem like a tiny but, the consistency of ‘Pchanges quickly and you don’t want to water down the icing.

If you do water it down by accident, you can add a couple teaspoons of powdered sugar to thicken it up again!

Drizzle your cookies when they are starting to cool, and let the icing harden for 5 minutes before serving.

I know you’re going to love these Rum Butter Cinnamon Swirl Cookies like we do! Share a photo on Insta and tag estee_bestie if you make them….happy baking!

Love Estee

Rum Butter Cinnamon Swirl Cookies

Estee

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Cuisine Dessert

Servings 20 cookies

Ingredients

  

Dough

• 2 1/2 cup + 1 Tbs sifted white flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 cup sour cream
• 200 gram butter, at room temperature

Filling

• 1 cup brown sugar
• 4 TBS oil(I use canola oil)
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp dark rum
• 1/8 tsp salt

Rum Icing

• 1/2 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp rum
• 1 tsp milk, plus more to thicken
• 1/8 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

 

Dough

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the flour and baking powder. Mix to combine. Cut the butter into cubes, and add it to the flour, along with the sour cream. Mix until a smooth dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place it in the fridge to chill for 30 minutes.

Filling

• Combine brown sugar, cinnamon, oil, salt, and rum in a small bowl and mix together until combined.

Assemble + Bake

• Preheat oven to 345F/ 175C. Dust a silicone baking mat lightly with flour. Take the dough out of the fridge and cut it into two. Roll out one half at a time into a long rectangle- roughly the length of your two palms together with fingers spread apart. Spread half the filling on to the dough, leaving a half inch at the top(the long side), without filling. Starting from the edge closest to you, roll up the dough tightly. Arrange the log so the crease is on the bottom. Cut slices about a finger-width in length with a sharp knife, and place the cookies on a baking sheet. Leave space between them because they will expand! Repeat with the second half of dough. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the tops are golden.

Icing

• While the cookies cool, prepare the icing. Place powdered sugar, rum, vanilla, and milk in a small bowl and mix with a fork to combine. If the icing is too thick to drizzle comfortably, add a 1/4 tsp of milk at a time. Its better on the thicker side than the thinner side, so only add as much milk just as necessary! Once the cookies cool, drizzle them with icing, and let it set for 5-10 minutes.

TO FREEZE

• To freeze the cookies, let the icing harden and place them immediately in a freezer-storage ziplock bag. Zip until only an inch is left, and suck the rest of the air out for the perfect air-tight seal! To defrost, simply set out the cookies on the counter for about 15 minutes to thaw.

Keyword dessert

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