Cinnamon Maple Rings; Not Exactly What Mrs. Fields Had In Mind...

Yeah.  Going back to Mrs. Fields' wonderful Best Cookie Book Ever, I decided to try my hand at her Cinnamon Maple Rings.  These are cookies that looked so yummy and I promised myself I'd make them one day.  Well, today was that day.  All I can say is, they taste outrageous, but they look NOTHING like the picture in Mrs. Fields' book!  I feel a little deceived... like, they should have warned me the rings could actually fall apart.  I'm not amused they look less than stellar, even though they taste wonderful.  These are cookies I will come back to to perfect.  You can be sure of that. 

In the meantime, here's the recipe...

Mrs. Fields' CINNAMON MAPLE RINGS

INGREDIENTS:

2 cup  All-purpose flour
1/4 cup  Sugar
1 cup (2 sticks)  Butter; chilled & sliced into 8 pieces
1/4 cup  Maple syrup; chilled
2 tbl Ice water; or as needed
Filling:
1/4 cup  Sugar
4 tsp Ground cinnamon
           
Topping:
1/4 c  Maple syrup


DIRECTIONS:

Combine flour and sugar in a medium bowl using an electric mixer set on medium speed.  Add butter and mix until the dough forms small, pea-sized pellets. Add chilled maple syrup and 2 Tbl water, and mix on low speed until dough can be formed into a ball, do not overmix or the dough will be tough! 

Separate dough into 2 balls andflatten into disks. Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap or place in plastice bags. Refrigerate for 2 hrs.

To Prepare the Filling: Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
        
Preheat oven to 325d F. Using a floured rolling pin on a floured board, roll one piece of dough into a rough rectangle 10 inches wide, 15 inches long, and 1/8 inch thick. Sprinkle dough with half of the cinnamon-sugar filling. Starting with smaller side, roll dough up tightly into a cylinder. Wrap each roll in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Using a sharp thin knife, cut 1/4 inch slices from each roll. Place slices on ungreased baking sheets, 1 inch apart. Brush tips lightly with 1/4 cup maple syrup. Bake for 16-17 minutes or until light golden brown.  Immediately transfer cookies to a cool, flat surface.


PERSONAL NOTES:

As I mentioned, these looked so good in Mrs. Fields' book.  I'm disappointed mine don't look the same.  However, they taste REALLY good!  Although, I don't get a very strong flavor of maple.  They taste way more cinnamon-sugar, though not too sweet which is nice.

Upon further thought, perhaps I didn't roll out the dough thin enough.  I'm thinking if I had done that, they wouldn't be able to spread out quite the way they did.  But I have to tell you, it was a little tricky rolling out the dough.  Make sure you have enough flour on the surface you're using as well as on the dough.  You'll need to make sure the dough doesn't stick as you roll it up.  I think that's one part of the trick, the other is to ensure you roll up the dough TIGHT.  I'm not sure I did it that tight.  It was difficult.  As I said before, this is a recipe I will revisit in order to perfect it.  I will figure it out.