These cinnamon toast cookies are so fun to make and a joy to eat, too.
They're a snickerdoodle on steroids- packed with warm, toasty flavors from sourdough breadcrumbs, delicious miso and maple syrup flavors, cinnamon sugar swirled throughout, and complete with sourdough discard to balance the sugar, spice, and saltiness with a tang.
Using up whatever leftover sourdough you have, the bread crumbs provide texture, flavor, and a delicious crumb to roll these cookies in!
Special Ingredients: Notes and Tips
Sourdough Toast: You may use whatever stale sourdough or other bread you have on hand. You do want it to be rather dry to make nice breadcrumbs, so if the bread is still a little moist, you may want to toast it for longer. Whole wheat, rye, or a regular loaf will work great for this!
White Miso Paste: If you don't have miso paste on hand, you may add 1/2 tsp. of sea salt or kosher salt in place of the miso. The miso adds a delicious saltiness that pairs well with the toasty, buttery flavors.
Whole wheat flour: I like to use whole wheat flour in the cinnamon sugar swirl to help bring out the toast flavor. However, if all you have on hand is AP Flour, it will taste just as great!
Maple Syrup: I opted for maple syrup to pair with the cinnamon spice, but if you only have honey, date syrup, or agave nectar, you may use that in place of the maple syrup.
Vegan Cinnamon Toast Cookies
These cookies are an elevated snickerdoodle. Perfectly salty, toasty, warm, and tangy (with a sourdough discard option), they are a fun cookie to make for a special occasion. Using up some old sourdough bread to make a cinnamon-sugar toast crumb to roll the cookies in, these cookies with sourdough breadcrumbs, miso, browned butter, and sourdough discard are uniquely delicious!
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
Make the Cinnamon Sugar Swirl:
- Combine the melted butter, sugars, and cinnamon in a bowl. Mix until combined. Add the flour and mix again until a wet dough forms. Portion out the mixture into small balls, then place in the freezer ot set while you make the dough.35 grams Vegan Butter, melted, 31 grams Brown Sugar, 1 tsp. Cinnamon, 30 grams Whole Wheat Flour, All Purpose is fine too, 25 grams Granulated Sugar
Make the Toast Crumbs:
- Carefully slice your stale bread, as it will be hard to slice. Toast the slices in a toaster until just golden brown.2-3 slices of Stale Sourdough Bread
- Spread the vegan butter onto your toast slices. Break up the slices so that they can fit in your food processor, then process until bread crumbs form. It's okay to have a little variation in size here, but you don't want any crumbs that are too big.Vegan Butter
- Pour the processed crumbs into a bowl, and mix in the cinnamon sugar until completely coated.1 tsp. Cinnamon, 1/8 cup Granulated Sugar
Brown the Butter:
- In a saucepan, add the vegan butter. Over medium heat, melt the butter. As the butter starts to bubble, put the heat down to medium-low and stir continuously. Eventually, the butter will begin to brown and have a toasty aroma. If you are having trouble seeing how browned your butter is, take it off the heat and wait for the bubbles to die down to check the color of the butter. Once browned, take off the heat and pour into the bowl of a stand mixer.80 grams Vegan Butter, browned
Make the Dough:
- To the bowl of a stand mixer (with the slightly cooled brown butter), fitted with the paddle attachment, or by hand with an electric mixer, add the brown sugar and granulated sugar, as well as the cold cubed butter. Mix on medium speed until pale, light, and fluffy, about 3-5 minutes.60 grams Brown Sugar, 165 grams Granulated Sugar, 50 grams Vegan Butter, Cold and Cubed
- Add the maple syrup, sourdough discard (if using), vanilla, miso, and plant milk. Mix again until fully combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.1.5 tsp. White Miso Paste, 1 tsp Vanilla Extract, 40 grams Sourdough Discard, or replace with equal parts Vegan Yogurt or Vegan Sourcream*, 28 grams Maple Syrup, 16 grams Plant Milk
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Add the dry mix to the stand mixer, along with the reserved toast crumbs for the dough (86 grams/ scant 1 cup). Mix on low speed for about 30 seconds to reduce the amount of dry ingredients that will fly out the sides, then go up to medium speed until just mixed. You don't want to overmix the dough.250 grams All Purpose Flour, 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda, 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder, 1/4 tsp. Salt, 86 grams Sourdough Cinnamon Toast Crumbs, made above
- Add the frozen cinnamon swirl balls to the dough and fold them in using a spatula. Try to get the balls evenly distributed.
Portion and Chill the Dough:
- Using a small ice cream scoop, scale, or by estimate, roll out 20 even dough balls. Mine came out to about 49-50 grams each, using a roughly 1/4 cup ice cream scoop. Slightly press down the dough balls into a hockey-puck shape before rolling. Roll each dough ball in the remaining toast crumbs, pressing them in lightly to help them stick. Coat both sides
- Place the coated dough balls on a parchment-lined plate or baking sheet. It's okay to stack them slightly. Refrigerate for 12 hours, preferably 24 hours.
1 hour before baking the cookies, take them out of the fridge to come to room temperature:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fareinheit.
- Bake the cookies. Place them about 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet. Place in the oven for 8 minutes, rotate the pan, and bake for another 3-5 minutes. The cookies will have slightly golden brown edges. They won't spread a whole lot, but will have some ripples on top. Allow to cool completely on the pan.
Video
Notes
*You want the dough to have a sour taste to go with the cinnamon sugar, so if you're not using sourdough discard, replace it with a sour wet ingredient.
Alternatively, You could add 1/4 tsp. Cream of TarTar (putting the baking powder measurement down to 1/4 tsp. instead of 1/2 tsp.) when you mix the butter, or use 1 tsp. Apple Cider Vinegar, and make up the rest of the wet ingredients in plant milk.
Can I make the components ahead of time? Yes! You may make the toast crumbs a day ahead of time, or the cinnamon sugar swirl, as they take time. The cinnamon sugar should remain in the freezer until ready to use, and the toast crumbs shouldn't be made too far in advance, as they don't want to continue to stale. I would recommend storing the toast crumbs in an airtight container until ready to use.
Do I have to chill the dough in advance? Short answer: probably not. You want the dough to be room temp when you bake, so it's ok if you make the dough the day of. However, I have always found that cookie dough gets better with age, as the flavor really develops with time in the fridge. DO NOT, however, skip the step of freezing the cinnamon swirl component, as we want it to remain in chunks within the dough.
