These vegan cinnamon roll cookies are the equivalent of cinnamon rolls if you don’t want to work with yeast or spend time proofing the dough. They are shortbread cookies filled with cinnamon sugar filling, rolled and drizzled with a delicious cream cheese frosting and taste just like you would want your cinnamon rolls to on an early Christmas morning. They have soft centers and slightly crisp exteriors. They make for the perfect breakfast and have make ahead options incase you’re on a schedule. They are amazing to celebrate any occasion with friends and family.
Ingredients you’ll need:
- Vegan Unsalted Butter: You will need a total of half cup butter: melted butter to make the dough but softened butter to make the cinnamon sugar filling and caramel. It is very important to have your butter at room temperature. You can ensure this by lightly pressing your finger on the block of butter. It should slightly leave an imprint. I also prefer to use unsalted butter because salted butters have varying amounts of salt content in them and it is always a good idea to add it on your own and avoid your bakes from being too salty.
- Granulated Sugar: Sugar acts as a binding agent to your muffins along with adding sweetness. You can use either granulated sugar, powdered sugar or caster sugar to make these cookies. Make sure you only use superfine sugar to get a better texture.
- Flax egg or Egg yolk: Use large eggs and bring them to room temperature before mixing in. Eggs strengthen the binding of your dough and also add moisture. Having your eggs at room temperature makes it easier to incorporate them and allow them to mix thoroughly in your dough. A good way of doing this is by letting them sit in a bowl filled with room temperature water for around 10 minutes or until they come down to room temperature.
- Vanilla: You must use a high quality pure vanilla extract in your recipes. This helps to add a rich flavor to your baked goods especially when they contain chocolate. Pure vanilla extracts are typically dark brown in color. This enhances the flavour of all ingredients and you should never leave this out.
- All purpose flour: I highly recommend weighing all your ingredients using a kitchen scale for accurate recipe results. If you’re using cups, don’t scoop your cup into the flour. Spoon the flour into your cup and level it off with the back of a knife.
- Leaveners: You will only need baking powder to make this recipe.
- Kosher Salt: Adding a pinch of salt helps to balance out the flavours in the cookies. I have added sea salt for a little extra flavour however you can use normal iodised salt too.
- Ground Cinnamon: You will need ground cinnamon to make the cinnamon sugar and spread it on the dough evenly.
- Vegan Cream Cheese: Having your cream cheese at room temperature helps to make a smooth glaze without and lumps. I recommend using block cream cheese to make this frosting.
- Vegan Heavy Cream: You will need high-fat heavy cream or heavy whipping cream to make a smooth and silky frosting. If you’re using low-fat cream, make sure to drain out the water content from it before starting.
- Powdered Sugar: You will need powdered of confectioners’ sugar to add to your frosting. It mixes in like a breeze and leaves no grainy lumps at all!
FAQ
Whisk together all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients to make the shortbread cookie dough using a hand mixer, stand mixer or a food processor.
Chill it in the fridge for at least one hour or up to a few days.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out one disk of dough to ⅛” in thickness. Spread softened butter onto the dough. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture evenly.
Roll the dough tightly, transfer to a baking sheet loosely covered with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Slice the log into 15 cookies and place them on a baking tray 1″ apart. Bake cookies at 350 degrees F for about 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely on the baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough.
Prepare the cream cheese frosting and drizzle on top of baked cookies. Enjoy!
Baked cookies (with or without icing) freeze well up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator. You can chill the cookie dough for up to 2 days. You can also freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months before rolling it out. Prepare the dough, flatten into a disk, wrap each in plastic wrap, then freeze. To thaw, thaw in the refrigerator or at room temperature.
They are so irresistible that you’ll probably not have any leftovers. However, if you do, store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for upto 5 days.
Tips to make the best vegan cinnamon roll cookies:
- Do not over mix the cookie dough. Because we do not want to incorporate much air into the dough, be sure to mix the butter and sugars together on low speed. Mixing at a higher speed for too long will aerate the dough and leave you with cookies that spread too much in the oven.
- Be sure to flour your work surface and rolling pin: It is very important to have a lightly floured surface and rolling pin before rolling out the dough as it might stick to them and tear otherwise. If you’re kneading the dough with your hand, I recommend you flour them as well.
- Roll the dough before chilling. For best results I like to roll the dough as soon as it’s ready. Roll the dough to 3/8 inch thick between two pieces of parchment paper and spread the cinnamon sugar filling in between. Roll tightly and pop in the refrigerator on a baking sheet before slicing the cookies.
- Use softened butter in your filling: I highly recommend using softened butter to spread onto your rolled out dough. A lot of recipes call for melted vegan butter instead but that will cause the filling to leak out while these cookies rest. You can spread the softened butter with the back of a spoon or using your finger tips.
- Be sure to trim off the edges: When you tightly roll dough into a log, the edges are usually uneven and don’t have nearly as much filling as the other parts of the log. I always trim off around quarter an inch from both ends of the log to get perfect cinnamon swirl cookies every single time.
- Do not over bake. For those soft, buttery, melt in your mouth cookies be sure to pull them from the oven when the edges are set and lightly golden brown and the center of the cookie is puffed and pale. The middle of the cookies might seem slightly under baked but the residual heat from the pan will continue to bake the cookies once they are removed from the oven.
- Cool the cookies completely. Be sure to let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the cookie sheets once removed from the oven. Then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
HOW TO GET THE BEST RESULTS FROM THIS RECIPE?
All of the recipes on the blog are thoroughly tested multiple times and carefully designed so that anyone can reproduce these delicious baked good in their own kitchen and enjoy them to the fullest. The only way to make this possible is when anyone can exactly replicate the measurements and temperatures.
- In order to standardise the way ingredients are measured, I highly recommend that you weigh them in grams. Volume measurements are nearly not as accurate and have a lot of scope for errors. To precisely be able to replicate the recipes, all you will need is a kitchen scale!
- Every oven heats up differently. Your oven might be over heating or under heating by around 50 degrees or more and you might not even know. In order to ensure that you are baking at the right temperatures, I highly recommend investing in an oven thermometer!
If you would still like to bake using volume measurements, I mentioned those below. However, I primarily test my recipes in grams and cannot promise the best results if you do so. Trust me, once you’ll start using these tools you’d never want to go back!
I hope you’ll enjoy these Vegan Cinnamon Roll Cookies this Christmas and don’t forget to bookmark this sugar cookies recipe for the holidays. These cute cookies are my favorite and perfect to celebrate any occasion with friends and family!
Happy Christmas baking! x
PrintVegan Cinnamon Roll Cookies
- Total Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 15 cinnamon roll cookies 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These vegan cinnamon roll cookies are the equivalent of cinnamon rolls if you don’t want to work with yeast or spend time proofing the dough. They are shortbread cookies filled with cinnamon sugar filling, rolled and drizzled with a delicious cream cheese frosting and taste just like you would want your cinnamon rolls to on an early Christmas morning.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Roll Cookies
- 125g (1 cup) all purpose flour, spooned and levelled
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 76g (⅓ cup) vegan unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 67g (⅓ cup) granulated or caster sugar
- 1 flax egg or egg yolk, at room temperature
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Cinnamon Sugar Filling
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted vegan butter, softened to room temperature
- 50g (¼ cup) granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 60g (¼ cup) block vegan cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon vegan heavy cream, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- 125g (1 cup) powdered sugar, sifted
Instructions
- Whisk together all-purpose flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and granulated sugar until the mixture is fluffy and pale yellow. Add the flax egg or egg yolk along with vanilla. Then, add the dry ingredients a cup at a time, until you have a crumbly dough that’s starting to come together.
- Turn the dough onto a pastry or cutting board. Press the dough together with clean hands until you have a smooth ball of dough.
- Roll the dough out in a rectangle (about 9×7 inches) onto a floured silicone baking mat (or floured parchment paper) to about 1/4″ thickness.
- In a small bowl, mix cinnamon and granulated sugar. Set aside. Spread the softened butter onto the dough using your hands until evenly coated. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture on top until evenly spread.
- Working slowly, tightly roll up each rectangle into a 9-inch log. If the dough is cracking at all, use your fingers to smooth it out. Some cracks are OK. Chill the logs of dough for at least 2 hours. What I like to do is carefully transfer the logs to a cutting board or plate and cover loosely with plastic wrap.
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- Remove dough logs from the refrigerator. Cut into 1/2 inch slices. Place slices onto baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes, until lightly browned on the sides. Remove from the oven, allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
- Using a hand mixer, cream the block cream cheese until completely smooth. Add in the vanilla and salt. Mix well. Add in powdered sugar and beat until combined.
- Transfer to a piping bag and drizzle over the baked cookies. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Cinnamon Rolls, Christmas cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: vegan cinnamon roll cookies, cinnamon roll shortbread cookies
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