CHURRO COOKIES WITH CARAMEL CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
Churro cookies are basically buttery warm pie pastry sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and sandwiched with caramel cream cheese frosting
1 hr, 15 Prep Time
45 min Cook Time
2 hr Total Time

Ingredients
Cinnamon Sugar Pastry:
  • 1 cup unsalted butter (cold)
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1 1/2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
Caramel Cream Cheese Buttercream:
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 2 ounces cream cheese (full fat)
  • 1/4 cup caramel sauce (thick at room temperature)
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups powdered or confectioner's sugar
Instructions
  1. Measure butter and flour into a large mixing bowl. Cut butter into flour using a pastry cutter. (Alternatively, you can pulse in a food processor until pea-sized crumbs form.) Add cream and softly mix just until dough comes together. Press into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill 20 minutes.
  2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
  3. Sprinkle flour over a counter top and roll 1/2 of dough out to 1/8 inch thick. (Sprinkle hands or rolling pin with flour, if needed.) Use a 1 1/2-inch round cookie or biscuit cutter to cut the dough into as many rounds as you can fit. (Keep rest of dough refrigerated until ready to roll it out.) Place rounds onto an ungreased baking sheet and prick each round with a fork 4 times, so air can escape. (You can place the cookies very close together--they do not spread.)
  4. Bake 10 minutes--if you see some of the cookies start to brown around the edge, remove the pan from the oven. Move cookies to a wire rack.
  5. Stir cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Use a spoon to sprinkle cinnamon sugar over the cookies, while they are still warm. (The warm butter will help the cinnamon sugar stick to the cookies.)
  6. While first batch is baking, gather scrap dough from first round, roll out, and repeat cutting rounds of dough out. Repeat process with the remaining dough. (Do not re-roll scraps more than twice--the pastry will become tough.) Allow cookies to cool completely on a wire rack.
  7. Make frosting by mixing butter, cream cheese, caramel, vanilla, and powdered sugar. Place a small dollop of frosting on the underside of a cookie and sandwich together with another cookie. Store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving.
Notes
Tools Used for This Recipe: a pastry cutter and biscuit cutter