Snickerdoodles

It seems that I'm always posting dessert recipes. It's not that I'm constantly making desserts, it's just that I'm more prone to take pictures of my 'fancy' desserts and share them. Let me assure you, I do make plenty of dinners in addition to the yummy desserts I've documented.

Let's move on. Last night I had a dream about my grandma's snickerdoodle cookies and couldn't get them out of my head. So I convinced Zak to make some with me on our day off together. He didn't mind at all, and did an excellent job measuring everything. I got to roll out the cookie dough; he's not very fond of getting his hands dirty if he doesn't have to. But it was still fun to bake together. Currently we are waiting for the second batch to come out of the oven and boy, do they smell just like Grandma's! Here is the recipe I used, which is halved from her original recipe.

1/2 c. shortening
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/3 c. flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

2 T. sugar2 T. cinnamon

1. Mix together shortening, sugar and egg.
2. Add in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda & salt.
3. Chill dough (optional); roll into balls the size of wlanuts.
4. Roll in cinnamon and sugar mixture.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8 - 10 minutes OR at 250 degrees for 25 - 30 minutes. (Tip: make sure to under-cook them by a minute, otherwise there will be a slight burnt flavor to them.)

Makes at least 2 dozen cookies, plus some extras!

so beautiful and round

mmmmmm

Homemade Oreo Cookies

I found this recipe on some blog that looked intriguing. I had never thought about making oreo cookies from scratch before, but after this recipe, I think I will from now on. They taste a little different than the store ones, but in a way that I can't describe. I don't know. They were pretty good and are great with milk. I will say one thing though: make tiny, like dime-sized cookies on the baking sheet, because these things expand like you wouldn't believe. It took a few pans to get them down to the average oreo size. Oh, and this recipe will make something like 50 or so small cookies. We have a ton of them leftover.

Cookie:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/2 c. unsweetend cocoa
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. + 2 Tbl. butter, room temperature
1 egg

1. In a medium-sized bowl, mix flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt and sugar.
2. Beat in the bugger and egg, continue mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
3. Make little balls (dime-sized, seriously) of dough and flatten slightly on hand (they also turn out very thin and crispy), place about 1 inch apart on greased pan.
4. Bake for 8 - 9 minutes at 375 degrees, set on a rack to cool.

Filling:
1/4 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 c. vegetable shortening
2 c. powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste, which is what the blog author used)

1. Place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and mix at low speed.
2. Gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla.
3. Turn mixer on high and beat for 2 - 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
4. The blog author talked about using a piping bag or something to place the filling on a cookie; I just took a small spatula and spread it on the bottom cookie and made sure the top cookie was about the same size, and gently pressed them together.

yum! (see the different sizes? yeah, these things get big quick)