Mini Cinnamon Roll Cookies

What these should have been called, or, at least, what should have been a byline or subtitle, is "or, Snickerdoodles that are 10 times harder to make." These are from a Taste of Home magazine my sister passed along to me, their October/November 2010 issue. They have a whole section in this issue that is called Cookie Jar Stars, but which should be called Complicated Cookies that Your Time Spent Making Would Be Better Used Elsewhere. Almost all of them in this section you have to roll out, and some of you may remember how I hate to roll dough. A few of them are drop cookies, which I prefer. This recipe fell somewhere in the middle.

Mini Cinnamon Roll Cookies
1 cup butter, softened
1 3/4 cup sugar, divided
3 egg yolks (first indication this would be time consuming--separating eggs...)
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp honey, divided
1 tsp vanilla
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
8 oz white baking choclate, chopped

In a large bowl, cream butter and 1 1/4 cups of sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks, 1 tbsp honey, and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well.

Shape a heaping tablespoonful of dough into a 6 inch log. In a shallow bowl, combine cinnamon and remaining sugar; roll log in cinnamon-sugar. Loosely coil log into a spiral shape; place on a greased baking sheet. Repeat, placing cookies 1 inch apart. Sprinkle with remaining cinnamon-sugar.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until set. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, melt baking chocolate with remaining honey; stir until smooth. Drizzle over cookies. Let stand until set. Store in airtight container.

Okay. Many of you might be reading this, thinking "why on earth would she try that?" I don't really have a good answer. I guess the picture had me fooled, they looked so innocent and yummy. Rolling the logs was an ordeal because they didn't roll out evenly, of course. Parts of them would fall off, or it would break in the middle, etc. So, I got 24 cookies out of this. 13 I made in the spiral shapes, and the other 11 I plopped on the cookie sheet and squished them down to the same size and thickness. Once they were baked, one fell on the floor. I brushed it off and ate it (that's how I found out these were basically extremely time-consuming snicker doodles). So I brough 23 cookies to home fellowship. Also, when I tried to melt the white chocolate and the honey, the chocolate seized and would. not. melt. So frustrating. It started burning, even, and it was still in one big hunk at the bottom of the bowl. So, I ended up making a glaze with confectioners' sugar, milk, and the remaining honey. This was my smart sister's idea, with whom I was speaking on the phone at the same time that the white chocolate was seizing and I was lamenting that I would have to stop at Hannaford on the way to home fellowship. The cookies all got eaten, so that's a point in their favor. But I'm definitely not making these again...