Sin-a-Buns

This is my take on the famous mall-style cinnamon buns. You know…Cinnabons, which smell and taste great but are nothing but soft and gooey. Unlike those food-court favorites, my Sin-a-Bun cookies have some texture and crunch. Three levels of texture, in fact: 1) the crunchy, cinnamony cookie; 2) the soft, dense “cinnamon button”; and 3) the velvety icing. Now that’s a dynamic experience to make your mouth happy.

I use a thumbprint technique to make the cinnamon button in the middle of each cookie. You’re probably familiar with jelly-filled thumbprint cookies that show up around Christmastime. Instead of jelly, though, I use a rich cinnamon slurry to fill each thumbprint. As the cookies bake, the slurry transforms into a rich center of tasty goodness. Makes about four dozen cookies.

UPDATE: Visit my Quamut Wicki for making thumbprint cookies.

Thumbprint Filling	2 tablespoons melted cinnamon chips 2 tablespoons milk 4 tablespoons white sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon extract 1/2 teaspoon butter flavoring
Creamables	2 sticks butter 2 1/4 cups dark brown sugar 1/4 cup white sugar
Wet Ingredients	2 eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla 1 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon cinnamon extract 1 teaspoon butter flavoring
Dry Ingredients	1 1/2 cups finely ground graham crackers 3 1/2 cups finely ground oatmeal 1 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt
Icing	1/4 cup room-temperature cream cheese 1/4 cup room-temperature margarine 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1.    In a small bowl, mix together the thumbprint filling ingredients. Set aside until step 8.

2.    Preheat oven to 350º.

3.    In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.

4.    In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.

5.    In another large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.

6.    Shape dough into balls—about 2 tablespoons each.

7.    Place chilled dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.

8.    Use your thumb to make an indentation in each dough ball. Fill each indentation with about 1/2 teaspoon of the thumbprint filling.

9.    Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

10.  Once the cookies are fully cooled, mix together the icing ingredients in a small bowl. Put the icing in a zip-top bag, snip off a corner of the bag, and then drizzle the icing over the cookies.

Comments

[Lorraine]

This looks like a fabulous recipe! You're getting more and more creative - not only with your recipe ideas, but with their names. I love this one!!

[In-Young]

Oh Mr. Cookie Man. A Friday AND a Monday with cookies? You're spoiling us!

I LOVE it!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Thanks, Lorraine and In-Young.

[Laurel]

Greg,
You know I love your cookies, but these for me turned out really strange. I am guessing that I just used the wrong kind of cinnamon extract because they tasted more like the candies red hots than true cinnamon. Is this how they are supposed to taste or are there different kinds of cinnamon extracts out there that can change the flavoring? Actually, I think all I could find was cinnamon flavoring, and this is probably the problem. Just wondering because they didn't taste anything like a cinnamon roll, but rather an ultra-hot, cinnamon-candy flavored thing. I think it was hotter than a fireball candy.

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Laurel. It sounds like the cinnamon flavoring was the culprit. I used McCormick cinnamon extract:

http://www.mccormick.com/productdetail.cfm?id=11738

I think switching from the flavoring to the extract should do the trick!

[Laurel]

Any suggestions of what I could use as a substitute for butter flavoring?

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Laurel. If you don't have butter flavoring on hand or can't find it easily in a store, I think it'll probably be OK if you just skipped that ingredient or replaced it with melted real butter.

[Laurel]

Thanks. I will give that a try. The Belgians are just not big on flavorings or extracts.

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

:-) My pleasure, Laurel!