Saturday, January 21, 2012

OOOPS! Let's Do Snickerdoodle Saturday!


You know, I thought of this yesterday, that I didn't have anything locked and loaded.

And then forgot!  Oh my stars, it's 10:30 and the Cafe was DARK....

No coffee. No pastries.

Sigh.....

Beth's making coffee for us right now. I've got the makings of Banana Cream pie for tonight... Umm... you can't eat it yet but feel free to think about eating it. The delicate blend of delicious sweet and fruity flavors balanced by flaky crust.

:)

Coffee's ready. Feel free to jump in and make me feel less stupid.

If that's possible.

Oh, sigh.

So, to make up for my ineptness or ineptitude (your choice/word choice) I'm going to show you a Ruthy-trick.

THIS IS NOT A TRICK I SHARE, SO:  SHHHHH..........................

From one basic batch of Snickerdoodle dough, I make three distinct cookies. So you start with my variation of a simple Snickerdoodle dough which produces a GREAT cookie. No lie.

3 Cups sugar
1 cup stick butter, (softened)
1 cup Crisco
4 large eggs
5 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg

(Betty's recipe calls for cream of tartar. Cream of tartar makes your cookies crisp. We like chewy cookies, so I leave it out. If you want crisp cookies, add in 4 teaspoons cream of tartar. I do not for the life of me know why you would choose to do this, but hey:  it's a free world, right?)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix sugar, butter, shortening and eggs in large bowl on medium speed. Add in flour, baking soda and salt. Cookies should bake only until the edges are slightly golden... 7-9 minutes depending on your oven. Darker cookies will be crisper and not as people-friendly.

Easy, right?  And it stays easy.

Using about 1/3 of the dough:

Shape dough into balls. For traditional snickerdoodles, roll balls in a mix of cinnamon and sugar. (If you don't keep a bowl of cinnamon and sugar in the cupboard for toast and bagels and little children, this is a good time to start. Or, just add teaspoons of cinnamon to a 1/4 cup of sugar and mix. Roll balls in this and place on baking sheet about 2 inches apart.)

Traditional Snickerdoodles
Grab another 1/3 of the dough:

Do the exact same thing only no cinnamon. When cookies come out of oven, poke 6 or 7 M&M's into the soft surface of the cookies. Baked M&M's aren't as pretty as freshly poked M&M's. Really. Trust me on this. You M&M's stay perky if you poke them into the really warm cookie.


These are M&M version. The kids wanted these "glazed" too, but it isn't necessary. Really. But it didn't hurt anything, either.  I'm just sayin'...
Grab the last 1/3 of your dough:

Repeat, using no cinnamon. Roll the cookies into balls and bake. THEN:

Using a pastry brush, glaze still warm cookies with a thin glaze. Glaze is made with 1 cup powdered sugar (also known as confectioner's sugar and 10X sugar) and enough milk to make a thin frosting, the consistency of paint. Swab the cookies with a quick sweep of frosting, then sprinkle them with jimmies or sprinkles or non-pareils or something festive.

These little babies are a favorite around here. The hint of nutmeg in the cookie is a great balance to the thin frosting and sprinkles. And this frosting dries firm so you can pack and ship these, but only if you REALLY, REALLY like the person. Like A LOT.





So, okay, I messed up, but you guys are kinda getting used to that, right?  I love hangin' with forgivin' folk.  ;)

13 comments:

  1. It must be one of those days, Ruthy. I've had an awful morning so far. First I slept in, then I fell 3 times while walking my dog (it's icy out there!)and I just missed the early bus to get to the grocery store before heading to work. Had to wait twenty minutes in the freezing cold to get the next bus. Raced around doing my grocery shopping and slipped and fell again!!!! Had a newbee cashier who didn't know how to do a delivery order so it took forever which made me miss the next bus which would have gotten me to work with time to spare. The second one was so late that I started to walk to the transit station where I connect to the next bus and...wait for it...I fell again! And to add insult to injury, the bus flew by while I was down and out! Grrrrrrr. I breezed into work 2 minutes late. Shhhhh don't tell anyone. And the only thing consoling me is the fact that I have a decadent chocolate cake waiting for me at home (as long as that grocery delivery makes it without mishap!) I'm not holding my breath. So, I'm happy to just sit here and nurse a white hot chocolate if you give me some boiling water. I have some packets in my purse. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I did the same thing with my blog yesterday, Ruthy. Only I didn't post until 2:30pm lol.

    That pic of sheet cookies looks scrumptious. Makes me think of teacakes. I have a recipe printed off and hope they turn out. Happy Baking!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. KAV!!!!

    OH, HONEY.

    Big hugs and commiserative looks coming your way, sweet thang!!!!

    Bless you for being understanding and fairly bounce-able! ;)

    I'm glad you didn't get hurt. And the grocery delivery, I'm lovin' that! They do that in the big cities here, but not so much out in the boonies where I live.

    Chocolate cake... Oh, Kav, that will be worth coming home to but if they don't deliver it....

    Call me. I'll send you something to make you smile, my favorite library lady!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Natalie, I love you guys! ;) Now I feel better... And the pie for tonight looks good so far... Creating layers as we speak!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Crisco??? Seriously??? Yuck. ;-) And I do use cream of tartar in my Snickerdoodles and they turn out chewy and rounded and scrumptious, if I do say so myself, LOL. My kids have a fit if I don't make them at Christmastime and love them if I "happen" to make them any other time of the year. (My daughter says hers don't turn out as well and she has my recipe.) Now I'm drooling... NO SUGAR, Melanie, no sugar...you don't need it. *sigh* And nutmeg, too? Wow, you have a totally different recipe than I do...

    I do like coming here to check out your recipes and play-by-play ;-) I just wish I had your energy, or half of it anyway...

    How 'bout coconut cream pie instead? I haven't had that in years... *drool drool drool drool drool* (Picking up grandson Zachary's habit...)

    :) Have a beautiful day, Ruthy!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Did you just whip these up this morning, Ruthy? Good grief, if I keep frequenting this cafe I won't have to worry about falling -- I can just roll myself around town! LOL. I love snickerdoodles but I've never made them now I have no excuse.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yum! This is well worth your oopsies.

    ReplyDelete
  8. LOL. Ruthy, when I saw the cafe was dark this morning, I sent you a FB message asking if we could throw a surprise birthday party for Missy.

    Happy Birthday, Missy. Snickerdoodles sound even better than cake I think!

    Hugs, Kav. I fell while walking the dog in the snow this morning too. I'd walked him out into the street to avoid the salt on the sidewalk (hurts his paws :( ) and he was trying to pull me back to daddy who was on the sidewalk. Down I went.

    Hope you're not feeling too stiff.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh, and Ruthy, don't feel badly! I was late getting my Healthy Writer blog up today so I decided to do a quick one on the health benefits of cinnamon.

    Got it all done and posted - only to notice I did a blog on cinnamon's health benefits back in October.

    Sheesh! At least I included different recipes this time - including a yummy one from ChefMD for warm spinach salad with chicken, grapes and toasted pecans. That makes up for the brain lapse, doesn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a great recipe, Ruthy! But this must make 50 dozen! LOL I think I'll cut it in half. I lose patience making cookies. Don't want to wait on more than two oven-loads. :)

    Thanks for the birthday wishes, Mary! I just had a slice of an amazing red velvet cake my friend made more me. Now I'm falling asleep!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Poor Kav!! And mary, too. I'm glad I live where it rarely gets slick outside!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Melanie, I bet I'd love your version enough to eat A LOT OF THEM. :) And if I used cream of tartar, then I'd have to BUY cream of tartar. It's a memory thing. Like Alum. I had a can of alum in my cupboard (for crisping pickles) FOREVER. How long can alum stay.... well....alum????

    Melanie, if you'd like to come share a recipe here, honey-lamb, we'd be downright tickled pink to host you!

    Mary, I must head over and check out this recipe. I'm not a spinach eater usually, but now and again it grabs me in salads. And it's sooooo good for us!

    Missy, this recipe is doubled. I can double tray my convection oven without burning anything so I can write while I'm baking. On weekends, that is. During the week, while the babies are here, it's me and babies, dancing. Learning body parts. Dancing. Singing. More body parts. Playing games...

    So it's fun to be able to write during the day on weekends. You've got kids home on weekends, so your schedule is the opposite of mine. And I'm so glad that Amy made you a red velvet cake!!!! Happy birthday, my friend and partner!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Okay, I LOVE cookies, and I saw the word SHIP in that post. Ruthy, you need my address....

    These look SO good!

    ReplyDelete