Everyone loves a sweet treat, and what better time to indulge in one than finals season? This cookie recipe is quick, easy, and requires little baking experience. While the recipe yields 12-16 cookies (depending on the desired size), it is also easily doubled. So, whip out your ingredients and embrace the end of the semester with some sweet cinnamon cookies! Share them with your friends, or keep them all to yourself (you deserve it).

Tips and Tricks

• It is essential to mix your wet and dry ingredients separately. This will be explained later in the instructions, but emphasis on this step is essential for ensuring the best results for your cookies. 
• After melting the unsalted butter, let it cool for a couple of minutes before adding ingredients to it. Adding sugar to the butter immediately can cause the sugar to burn, altering the taste and consistency of the cookies. 
• For best results, once the dough is finished, allow it to cool for 1-2 hours before rolling it into balls and placing it into the oven. This will make the balls easier to shape, and make the cookies slightly fluffier after baking.  
• Before baking the dough, place parchment paper on the cooking sheet. This will make the cookies easy to peel off of the pan after they are done baking. Using oil also serves this purpose, but parchment paper allows for an easier clean-up process, and there is less risk of the cookies sticking to the pan. 

Ingredients

Dough

• ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
• ½ cup light brown sugar, packed
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract 
• 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
• 1 ½ cup flour
• 1 ½ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 ½ tsp cinnamon

Dough Coating

• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tbsp granulated sugar

Instructions

1. 1. In a medium-sized bowl, melt ½ cup of unsalted butter. This is equivalent to one average stick of butter. Allow the butter to cool for a couple of minutes, but not to the point where the butter has resolidified. 
   2. Add ½ cup of light brown sugar and ¼ cup of granulated sugar to the bowl with the cooled-down butter. Mix well with a fork. 
   3. Add 1 egg, 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 1 ½  teaspoons of cream of tartar to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix well. 
   4. In a separate, medium-sized bowl, Add 1 ½ cups of flour, 1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda, ¼ teaspoon of salt and 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon. Mix well, and add additional cinnamon if you would like. *Reminder: balls of dough will be coated in cinnamon later, so use caution. 
   5. Add half of the wet ingredients (the mixture with butter, sugar, etc.) to the flour mixture. Mix well with a fork until all ingredients are blended. Then add the second half of the wet ingredients to the bowl and repeat. The dough may be sticky.
   6. Place the bowl with all ingredients mixed well into a fridge to cool for 1-2 hours. 
   7. Preheat oven to 350℉ 
   8. Place parchment paper on your desired cooking sheet. Make sure to cut the parchment paper so that there isn’t any hanging off of the sheet, this will prevent possible burning of the paper in the oven. 
   9. Mix 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 4 tablespoons of granulated sugar in a small dish. You can also purchase cinnamon sugar if you do not wish to make it yourself. 
   10. Take the cookie dough out of the fridge. 
   11. Roll the dough into quarter-sized balls. After the balls are shaped, roll each ball into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Make sure the ball is completely coated with cinnamon sugar. 
   12. Place the coated balls onto the cooking sheet approximately 2 inches apart.
   13. Place the cooking sheet with the balls into the oven for 11 minutes, or until the bottoms of the cookies are golden brown.

• Optional sprinkle pinches of leftover cinnamon sugar on the baked cookies after they are taken out of the oven.

1. Allow cookies to cool for at least 5 minutes before attempting to remove the cookies from the sheet. 

Enjoy! 🙂