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.  ;)