Holiday Challenge Day 6 - Angel Wings...At Times, A Devilish Debacle

I was awakened relatively early this morning by a rumbly in my tumbly (please be assured, faithful followers, that this was indeed from hunger and not from a bout of food poisoning or stomach flu).  Remembering the Angel Wings dough I had made the night before, I excitedly got out of bed, put on a pot of coffee, and pulled out the recipe book, all in preparation for a breakfast of warm, tender, flaky cookies enhanced by the subtle, simple flavors of cinnamon and sugar.  Kind of like cinnamon and sugar toast, but all grown up. 

The recipe is really quite simple - the dough is comprised of only 3 ingredients, and to make the cookies themselves, you roll the dough out and then roll it up with cinnamon and sugar, slice and bake.  A little time in the refrigerator and freezer are required, but that's about it.  Easy, peasy, right?  Yeah, yeah, "easy peasy lemon squeezy" my a**.  I happened to find it just a wee bit tedious, and the process of rolling the chilled dough into a rectangle somewhat challenging.  But once I got them in the oven, I fully expected to tame those rumblies with some tasty little morsels, spitting images of the photo that accompanied the recipe.  And perhaps I would have...if I hadn't fallen asleep on the couch while baking the first batch.  Not for long, mind you, but just long enough for them to emerge from the oven looking like victims of a tanning booth tragedy.  I of course had to eat one anyway, just well, just because.  While baking the second batch, I tried to figure out what the recipe meant by "turn the cookies".  Did it mean turn the pan?  Or turn the cookies over?  I chose to turn over.  They came out moderately brown, flaky, and crispy.  Not bad, but still not the texture I imagined, and I thought they needed more cinnamon and sugar.  So...if you're counting, I am about to begin batch number three.  To which I liberally applied cinnamon and sugar, and did not flip, just rotated the pan after 12 minutes.  Hmm.  Not bad, but still browner and crispier than what I expected.  And honestly folks, I have no idea what happened with batch number four.  It's all a blur.   One minute I was shoving the last sheet of cookies into the oven, the next I was trying to remove said cooled cookies from a pan to which they had stuck. Like glue.  Like Super Glue. 

In all honesty I thought for a minute about having an "emergency substitution" for the Angel Wings blog post, because I really didn't want to admit that this turned out to be a devilish debacle rather than a heavenly baking experience.  Like I told one friend, I have a reputation to uphold as an awesome cookie baker!  If word of these got 'round, well, it could ruin me in an instant!  But, in retrospect, I won't say my efforts were completely in vain, because for the most part you could see a vague resemblance between my cookies and their photogenic counterparts.  And they actually tasted pretty good (I managed to "choke down" half a dozen or so trying to determine if I really liked them or not).  While I expected them to have a cookie-like texture, they truly are more like a light and crispy pastry.  Which, in retrospect, really does make them perfect for breakfast. 

Angel Wings
Makes approximately 3 dozen
Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies & Bars (2009)

1 cup cold butter, cubed
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup sour cream
10 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
Colored sugar (optional)

In a large bowl, cut butter into flour until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Stir in sour cream.  Turn onto a lightly floured surface; knead 6-8 times or until the mixture holds together.  Shape into four balls; flatten slightly.  Wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

Unwrap a ball.  Sprinkle 2 tablespoons granulated sugar on waxed paper; coat all sides of ball with sugar.  Roll dough into a 12" x 5" rectangle between two sheets of waxed paper.  Removed top sheet of waxed paper.  Sprinkle dough with 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I sprinkled it with a combination of cinnamon and sugar).  Lightly mark a line down the center of the dough, making two 6" x 5" rectangles. 

Starting with a short side, roll up jelly-roll style to center mark; peel waxed paper away while rolling.  Repeat with other short side.  Wrap in plastic wrap; freeze for 30 minutes.  Repeat the process with the remaining 3 balls of dough.

Place remaining sugar (or colored sugar, if desired) on waxed paper.  Unwrap one roll of dough.  Cut into 1/2" slices.  Taking each slice, dip both sides in the sugar.  Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12 minutes or until golden brown.  Turn the cookies (based on the look of the photo in the book, I am assuming this is turn the pan, not flip the cookies); bake 5-8 minutes longer. 
Remove to wire racks to cool.