Saturday, January 19, 2013

Lots of baking, lots of making!

We've had a busy week-- cooking, baking, and crafting away...

Let's start with baking, since it's always nice to start with simple and sweet.

My friend Samantha came over last week, and at her request, we whipped up a batch of snickerdoodles! Utterly delicious, and equally easy.

Samantha found the recipe on the consistently wonderful "Smitten Kitchen" website... They never cease to please! I followed the recipe exactly, and they came out perfectly. We devoured them straight out of the oven, and they were terrific.

Snickerdoodles

Makes three dozen 3 to 4-inch cookies. Your mileage will vary by the ice-cream scoop you use.

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 stick or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

  • Preheat the oven to 400°, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
  • Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine. At this point, I chilled the dough for an hour (or you can overnight) before scooping it, because I otherwise found it too difficult to scoop into balls and roll but the original recipe doesn’t find this step neccessary.
  • Once dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small ice-cream scoop* to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack. 

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