Adventures in Baking: Cookie Making

[wellownedbkup]

i kinda love snow days. it reminds me of when i was in elementary school and we had tons and tons of off time. the house was always warm with baking things (mostly bread or cakes, as my parents were caterers at the time) and you could wake up to warmth. it was especially nice cause i didn't have heat in my room.

the one thing my mom was never any good at was baking cookies. brownies, cakes, breads-- hands down, best baker in the world. but cookies took a little too much patience. so i grew up making up cookies. couldn't get them to stay round for the life of me (finally got it today).

so i had both yesterday and today off of school and work (i've got tomorrow off too, so there'll be something like cake and stuff tomorrow) due to wintery weather. yay! in the basket above, you see my endeavors: shortbread, gingersnaps, snickerdoodles, molasses and toffee-white chocolate chip cookies. i had recipes to try! they all turned out pretty well, considering it was my first effort at all but the toffee, and the toffee suffered from a lack of ingredients.

the recipes aren't mine, but they're all WONDERFUL.

Toffee Cookies
1 ½ c flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ c butter, softened
¾ c brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 pkg Heath toffee bits (8 oz) (Today, I substituted 4 oz Heath bits, 4 oz white chocolate chips, because it's what I had on hand)

Oven: 350 degrees.

Combine dry ingredients. Cream together everything else. Add dry. Mix in candy bits. Drop on greased cookie sheet. Cook 11-13 minutes.


Gran's Scottish Shortbread
1 c unsalted butter, softened.
1/2 c confectioners sugar (powdered sugar, icing sugar)
1 egg yolk
1/4 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups flour

Beat butter with sugar, salt, and egg yolk until fluffy.
The rest should be stirred by hand; the dough gets stiff and can burn out the motor.
Add flour a little at a time until mixture is too stiff to work with a spoon. Flour a counter or board and knead the dough, pulling the flour into it, until it just begins to "crack". It's about the texture of play-doh at this point, perhaps a little stiffer. If you don't use all the flour or you use more than 2 1/4 cups, don't worry; shortbread can be an imprecise science.
Divide the dough into two balls and pat them each into a circle about 1/2 inch thick on an ungreased cookie sheet. Prick the whole thing with a fork, and use the flat of the fork to press lines around the edges.
Bake at 350 "until brown" according to Gran's recipe; usually it's about 30 minutes but ovens, altitudes, and humidity all affect it. Essentially the center will be a pale pastel yellow and the edges will just be turning brown.
Remove the cookie sheet and cut the shortbread while it's still hot.


Grandma's Molasses Cookies
3/4 c. shortening
1 c. sugar
1/4 c. molasses
1 egg
2 c. flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg

Melt shortening in a 3 or 4 quart saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat; let cool.
Add sugar, molasses and egg; beat well. Sift together flour, baking soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and nutmeg.
Add to first mixture. Mix well. Chill overnight.
Form in 1 inch balls, roll in granulated sugar and place on greased cookie sheets two inches apart.
Bake in moderately hot oven, 375F, 8 - 10 min. Remove the cookies from the oven while they still look soft, because they flatten out as they cool.


Snickerdoodles
1 cup soft shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar (for rolling)
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Mix together shortening, sugar, and eggs. Mix in a separate bowl the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt, and then combine the two mixtures. Chill two hours or use immediately.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Roll into walnut-size balls. Roll in mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Bake 8 - 10 minutes. Makes around 36 cookies.


Gingersnaps
2 1/4 cups all−purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
parchment paper
1/4 cup granulated sugar

Into a large bowl sift together 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour, baking soda, and spices and whisk in brown sugar.
In a small saucepan melt butter and whisk into flour mixture with molasses and egg until combined well.
With a wooden spoon stir in remaining 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons flour until combined well.
Chill dough, covered, until firm, at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.
Preheat oven to 350F. and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll level tablespoons of dough into balls and in a small bowl roll balls in granulated sugar to coat.
Arrange balls about 2 inches apart on baking sheets and bake in batches in middle of oven until flattened and a shade darker, 10 to 12 minutes.
Cool cookies on baking sheets 2 minutes and transfer with a spatula to racks to cool completely. Cookies keep in an airtight container at room temperature 5 days.

when all was said and done, they were pretty good cookies. my gingersnaps weren't as gingery as we usually like, nor were they as 'snappy', but i like a softer cookie anyway. my toffee cookies would've been better had i had enough toffee on hand, or used far less white chocolate chips, as i just dumped the rest of the bag in and didn't measure(!).

as a note, i should probably say that my shortening tends to range from all butter crisco, to all butter, to a varied mix of butter and regular crisco. and, since i don't have parchment paper, i used greased wax paper. all in all, it worked pretty well.

it works for my brother, anyway. he's got a cookie monster theme on his sidekick that he's been playing every chance he gets.