Cinnamon Sticks

The dough for these fabulous cookies is ridiculously easy to make; the tricky part is rolling them by hand. When you make them, stay with process from start to finish—don’t chill the dough or it will become impossible to work with. The finished cookies literally melt in your mouth and will disappear from the cookie tin.

1 cup butter

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

5 T. sugar

Cream butter and sugar. Mix cinnamon with flour, gradually add to butter-sugar mixture. You should have a soft dough that holds together well. It should feel like soft play-dough. Move to a clean, flat surface for rolling. Roll dough on a sheet of wax paper (slightly larger than the size of a sheet of paper). Take a small handful of dough—about 2-3 tablespoons— make a ball in your hands, then place it on the waxed paper. Roll it back and forth, lightly pressing with your fingers to make a cylinder about the thickness of a cigar. Then cut at an angle to get pieces about 2-2 1/2 inches long. You’ll have to experiment with the amount of dough to roll—you want enough to get several pieces, but not so much that the cylinder chapter-4.indd 64 10/28/05 6:03:36 AM 65 Cookies and Candy becomes unwieldy. Places pieces on a cookie sheet—they don’t spread much, so you can get a lot on one sheet. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes. These cookies shouldn’t get too brown. If you’re using a dark sheet, baking time will be shorter. Remove from cookie sheet and cool on a rack for about 3-5 minutes. Take about 1/2 cup sugar and pour onto a dinner-size plate. Add a generous shake of cinnamon; mix it in thoroughly. Then roll cookies in the cinnamon sugar.