Recipe: Cinnamon bun cookies

I have decided to no more limit this blog to more or less translating my German one ashouston.blogspot.com, but add a new category to this one only: recipes of my US-German kitchen. Or German-US kitchen - who knows.
Because of Christmas coming, I am starting with a Christmas cookies recipe for Cinnamon bun cookies. I found the original on the German site chefkoch.de and modified it a little for US needs. Making those will fill both your stomach and the air of your kitchen with cinnamon flavor and smell. Actually, I do inhale the smell of those fresh from the oven. That's how they looked then:

Want to give it a try? So here is what you need for about 30 cinnamon bun cookies: the ingredients for the dough:

• 2 oz softened butter
• 2 oz plain cream cheese
• 3 oz sugar and 1 pack vanilla flavored sugar or 3.5 oz sugar
• a pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 6.35 oz all purpose flour
• a (large) pinch of baking powder

For making the dough, I used the whiskers of my handheld mixer. First stir butter and cream cheese, then add sugar, salt and the egg yolk and mix well. Last add the (sifted) flour together with the baking powder.
Spread the dough between two layers of plastic wrap (by the way, I used a bottle of wine) to about letter size (8x12 in) and try to keep a rectangular shape. While recovering from that task, prepare the cinnamon spread

• 1 oz butter, melted
• 2 oz sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder

Remove the upper layer of plastic wrap and cover the dough well with the melted butter. Then spread the mix of the sugar and cinnamon powder over it. Keep about one tablespoon for the outer layer.
With the help of the wrap, now roll the dough from the shorter side to a solid formed round bar, cover it in the remained cinnamon sugar. Wrapped in the plastic wrap, put it in the fridge for three hours (or in the freezer for half an hour).
Preheat the oven to 350°F, prepare one or two cookie sheets and unwrap the cookie bar. With a sharp knife, cut slices (.25 inch thick) from the bar, put them on the cookie sheets and bake for about 10-12 minutes until slightly browned.

Enjoy! (And leave a comment, if you tried them.)