I have been seeing a lot of buzz about Sally's Baking Addiction all over social media and I wanted to see what all the fuss is about. She is all about bringing simple yet beautiful desserts to the home baker. I thought this is the perfect opportunity to try out 3 recipes:
Cinnamon Roll Cookies: https://pin.it/3jT8JEG
Apricot Almond Thumbprint Cookies: https://pin.it/1hqYuYD
Pistachio Drop Cookies with a Brown Butter Glaze: https://pin.it/4XCo3hU
They might not look perfect but that was because my incredible baking assistants pitched in.
7 Year old Maddy and 3 year old Nathalie
These recipes were not super difficult and they are perfect to do in the kitchen with little ones. Maddy is definitely a pro by now. She knows how to weigh out ingredients, level off the teaspoons and slowly add in the dry to wet mixture. My little Nathalie, well... she just liked rolling the dough in small balls and staring at my Kitchen Aid in action.
I truly followed these recipes exactly except for the cinnamon roll recipe. This recipe requires rolling out the dough and then layering with melted butter and cinnamon/sugar and then rolling it up like legit cinnamon rolls. Is your mouth watering yet???
I've made real gluten free cinnamon rolls in the past and made the executive decision to not only swap out the regular flour for gluten free flour at a 1:1 ratio but to also split the two different types of flour, using 50% Schär Gluten Free Kuchen & Kekes Mix (Cakes & Cookies) and 50% Schär Gluten Free Brot (Bread) Mix. Why did I use the gluten free bread flour? I wanted more stability. Sometimes the cookie and cake gluten free flour mix is just too soft. Great for cakes and cupcakes but these cinnamon roll cookies are more like cinnamon rolls than actual cookies. I also threw in a teaspoon of Xanthan Gum which is a great binding agent when you are not using gluten.
This decision created a soft but pliable dough that was easy to roll out! I will definitely make these same changes next time!
Ok review time for each recipe:
Apricot Almond Thumbprint Cookies
These were my favorite! The dough came together super easily and I loved the usage of cream cheese in the dough. This gave the dough a tangy and soft chewy texture. Not crumbly at all! They do take some work though! Before baking you have to chill the dough for 4 hours, roll the dough into a ball, roll that into sliced almonds, make thumbprints and put in about a 1/2 teaspoon of jam into each cookie. In my opinion, it was absolutely worth it!
Cinnamon Roll Cookies:
These were a close second and actually I thought they tasted better the second day. They are truly a perfect combo of cookie meets cinnamon roll. They are a lot of work, just like real cinnamon rolls but my girls had so much fun brushing on the melted butter and sprinkling on the cinnamon sugar mix. Plus when you do cut into them you can see the perfect cinnamon roll line spiraling throughout the entire cookie. The glaze came together in about a minute and was very easy to drizzle on top of each cookie. Wait about 45 minutes for the glaze to full harden or just eat right away. Definitely no harm in that!
Pistachio Cookies with a Brown Butter Glaze:
These were my least favorite but they were my husbands favorite. I think these were my least favorite because they are similar to Italian Wedding Cookies or Russian Tea Cookies. I found them to be a bit dry and crumbly, but a lot of people like that. I am more partial to soft and chewy. However, the brown butter glaze is MONEY! Seriously I think this glaze on top is so incredible I want to put it on everything. The nutty aroma from the brown butter elevates the subtle pistachio flavor of the cookies.
I made all three of these in one day which is definitely doable but two of these recipes require quite a bit of chilling time so make sure to plan ahead.
What are you favorite cookies to bake at the holidays... with or without kids?
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