Fat City Sugar Cookies

Despite the horrid title, we decided to try these anyway. Except I ran out of flour. And had to use a cup of whole wheat flour that I hadn't really taken the time to grind until silky, so it was a bit grainy. The cookies didn't turn out that great, they tasted quite bland and had a bit of a grainy texture. So here's another recipe I won't bore you with!

Easy Butterscotch Drop Cookies

These were fairly easy to make and kind of reminded me of snickerdoodles. Emmy thoroughly enjoyed smashing them down and could have spent all afternoon on that activity alone! The sugar/cinnamon ratio was way off, though. All I could taste was the bitter cinnamon when I first took a bite. Next time (if there is a next time) I'll correct that and add a tiny bit of cinnamon to a bunch of sugar for "stamping".

Easy Butterscotch Drop Cookies:
2c. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2/3 c. oil
1 c. packed dark brown sugar
2 lrg. eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In large bowl, beat the oil and brown sugar. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. Gradually blend in dry ingredients.
4. Combine sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
5. Drop the dough by spoonfuls 1 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Flatten each cookie with the bottom of a glass dipped in canola oil and then in the cinnamon sugar.
6. Bake for 12 to 15 min. (I did 11 min. and let them cool on sheets) until lightly colored. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

I give these cookies 3 STARS

Dainties

The latest recipe we tried from our big book was called "Dainties". It was such a simple recipe I decided to go ahead with it even though it was Friday and I already had a dozen things going. We were supposed to split the dough in 3 parts and color them pink, blue, and yellow, but really, I was making cookies with EMMY, so they all became pink cookies. The dough was thick and very pliable, and fun to form into balls to place on the cookie sheets. I thought it was a great success!! - Until I tasted one. Blech!!!

Seriously. A total waste of ingredients! Emmy ate one and thought it was great, but I'm fairly certain that was because it was cute and pink. These cookies were obviously aimed toward making points for being cute, not for being tasty.

Zero stars for this one. My only thought as I tried to find some redeeming quality is that if you have a child that tends to eat the play-do, this is the recipe for you.

And so I won't bother any of y'all with the recipe unless you're just dying to have it.

Since I already had most of the ingredients out, I went ahead and made a double batch of the good old stand-by: the Best Chocolate Chip Cookies Ever! No one ever complains about those being brought to potluck! I didn't bring a single one home!

Calla Lilies

Calla Lilies

1 c. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. salt
3 large egg whites
3/4 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Filling:
1/2 c. heavy cream
2 Tbls. granulated sugar


1. Preheat oven to 400, lightly grease 2 baking sheets
2. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat the egg white until stiff but not dry. Beat in the sugar and vanilla extract. Gradually fold in the dry ingredients. Beat for 2 min.
4. Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.
5. Bake for 8 to 10 min, until golden. While the cookies are still hot, roll each one into a cone shape and place seam side down on wire rack to cool.
6. To prepare filling, beat the cream and sugar together until it holds soft peaks. Just before serving, fill cones with whipped cream. For variations, add chopped fresh fruit to the filling.

** My baking notes. Dough making went smooth enough, but after I took the cookies sheets out of the oven and began rolling them, I quickly realized they had to still be HOT to roll or they were too brittle. I put both sheets back in the oven, turned down the heat to 250 and began doing it this way: Open oven, scoop one cookie off with spatula, toss into other hand with the oven mitt on it, toss down the spatula while closing the oven with my foot, and roll and blow on it while walking over to the wire rack. Had to blow on it to get it to stiffen up enough to not unroll the second I put it down and end up in the shape of a "U". Then quickly repeat the sequence for all of the cookies. That's why some of them are a little more "golden" than the others.

Emmy was sorely disappointed she didn't get to help out with this step because it had to be done while the cookies were so hot.

We filled them with a decorators sleeve and tip as soon as they were cooled, and tried them out. I was less than impressed. Emmy thought they were great! We had to run to the school to pick up Josh, so I placed them on a plate and stuck them in the fridge. When I came back they were nicely chilled and tasted much better, actually!

They're more work than the average "every day" cookie, but I think they'd be a great make-ahead recipe, frozen up for a special occasion and can be easily dressed up with fruit or sprigs of mint.

Overall, though, only 3 STARS.

Back Bay Cookies

this was the only picture I got of the very last cookie, before they finished devouring it!

So Emmy and I have decided to be a little adventurous and make our way through the 1001 Cookie Recipes book! So rather than clog up the other blog with our many experiments, I created this new blog, just for cookies, cookies, and more cookies!

Hope you enjoy our reviews and maybe try a recipe or two!

This recipe got 4 STARS!!

The recipe called for chestnuts and golden raisins, neither of which we had on hand. We searched for chestnuts around here but couldn't find any, so we finally settled for Macadamia nuts and tried out our first recipe: Back Bay Cookies

Back Bay Cookies

2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter, at room temperature
1 c. granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2/3 c. golden raisins
1/2 c. chestnuts, chopped (subbed macadamia nuts)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 2 baking sheets.
2. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon
3. Cream together butter and sugar, beat in the eggs. Gradually blend in dry ingredients. Fold in raisins and chestnuts.
4. Drop the dough by spoonfuls 1 1/2 inches apart on baking sheets
5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until lightly colored. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

*baking note (from the book): These cookies have a long history, dating back to revolutionary days; this is an updated version.

*my baking notes: the macadamia nuts were so tender you'd hardly know they were there! Very tasty cookies, good after-taste and no complaints from the family :)