When we make cookies, we'll often start with a basic recipe and then play around. We'll add stuff, substitute stuff, etc., and then see what the results taste like. If we are lucky, we'll write down the successful variations so we can make it again.
This started out as plain old sugar cookies. That's one of our go-to recipes. It is so easy to make -- we can have a batch mixed together and on the cookie sheets by the time the oven preheats. It is a great base for all kinds of additions.
The latest batch is worth writing down. Its origin as a sugar cookie is not obvious. I don't know how well they will keep. I don't think we'll be finding out, since they are disappearing rapidly.
To be honest, a lot of the amounts in the recipe below are approximate. How much, after all, is a "sploot"? Or "add a bit more until it tastes right" or "add until the dough is the right texture or thickness"?
Not Quite Sugar Cookies (aka Yet Another Sugar Cookie Variation)
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
1/2 cup sugar (white)
about 1-2 tablespoons molasses
1 egg
1-1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup oatmeal (old fashioned oats)
1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
about 1 teaspoon almond extract (probably optional)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 tsp ginger
"some" milk
Preheat oven to 375F
Melt the butter in the microwave (or at least get it pretty soft).
Add the sugar and mix. Add the egg and mix. Add the vanilla and almond extracts, then the baking soda, salt, and spices. Mix. Add the flour and oatmeal. Mix. Add enough milk to make it like a good sugar cookie dough. I don't know how much that is, but I think it's somewhere between a few tablespoons and a quarter cup. Maybe we'll be more careful and write down the exact amount next time. If so, I'll update the recipe in this post.
Put small balls of cookie dough on the cookie sheets. Bake about 10 minutes. Remove when the cookies are done (starting to get golden on top, bottoms starting to brown, and obviously set and no longer wet-looking in the middle).
These are different in texture from regular sugar cookies. Is it the oatmeal? The milk? The molasses? The higher relative proportion of flour/oats to the rest of the ingredients? The crumb seems more tender than the slight graininess of a sugar cookie. They have a slightly caramel-like flavor.
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The basic proportions for sugar cookies are as follows, in case we need to know. We use the same method for mixing. Nuke butter, add sugar and egg, add other liquids and the powdery things, finally add flour, then add any other additions such as nuts or chocolate chips.
Basic Sugar Cookie proportions:
1 stick butter, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 egg, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1-2 tsp vanilla extract, pinch of salt, 1.5 cups flour
Those can be drop cookies as is. Or, you can refrigerate them in a log shape to make refrigerator cookie dough. Or, you can chill it for a while, then roll out and use cookie cutters on the rolled out dough.
The obvious variations are to use brown sugar for part of the sugar portion, to add cocoa to make them chocolate sugar cookies (or add cocoa to part of the dough and make spiral or marbled cookies), to add interesting spices, to use different flavor extracts, to add things like raisins or nuts or lemon zest or other tidbits, to make them into thumbprint cookies, to add icing (mix powdered sugar with a smidge of liquid and some food coloring), to substitute other flours for part of the regular flour, and so on.
Friday, June 8, 2012
Monday, June 4, 2012
Recipe Corner: Mint Crinkle Cookies
We keep losing the recipe -- it's written on an index card, like many of our other recipes. Last week, the index card, covered with bits of butter and crinkle-colored dough, went on walkabout. Eek! So here it is on the blog, for safe-keeping. The recipe is originally from Honest Pretzels by Mollie Katzen. We have many of her cookbooks but apparently we don't own this one yet.
Mint Crinkle Cookies
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint abstract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 2 oz. of cake decoration crystals (the original recipe calls for one 2.25 oz. jar of green cake decoration crystals, but we use about half of a 4 oz. jar of colored sugar crystals, any color. Today it is "Decors Red Sugar Dessert Toppings")
350 F oven, preheated. It doesn't matter if it's a convection or regular oven. We've done it both ways. Grease a couple of baking sheets or use non-stick ones. We use ungreased, non-stick cookie sheets.
We usually use this quickie one-bowl method for mixing the ingredients. A fork works fine for all the mixing -- you don't need any fancy electric appliances or whisks or anything. Use a non-metal mixing bowl if you're using the microwave to melt butter.
Melt the butter (we use the microwave). It's OK if it's softened more than melted. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the extracts and the egg and the milk. Mix after each addition or after it's all added. Then add the flour. Before you mix in the flour, put the baking powder and salt on top of the pile of flour in the bowl. Mix it a bit, then mix all the dry stuff into the wet stuff. (Sometimes, we add the salt and baking powder to the wet stuff, mix it in, and then mix in the flour. Either way works.) Don't overmix. Finally, add the sprinkles and mix.
Roll small balls of the dough, maybe 1" or so in diameter, and place them on the cookie sheet. Flatten them slightly then bake until they are light golden (i.e. done). It takes about 8-12 minutes depending on how big and/or flattened the cookies are.
Remove cookie sheet from oven. Let it cool for a few minutes (or not, as you wish). Then remove the cookies from cookie sheet and eat. You can wait for the cookies to cool before eating if you'd like. They are good warm or at room temperature. These keep for at least a day or two. We don't know if they last beyond that because they're always eaten by then. They are best the day they're made.
With about 12-15 cookies per cookie sheet, we usually use two cookie sheets per batch of dough. So that's a couple-dozen cookies, give or take a bit. They spread a bit while cooking, but not a whole lot. It depends on how much they are flattened before cooking.
We like these with the peppermint extract. One of these days, we might try something else, such as almond or lemon or anise extract. Or maybe not. Why mess with success?
We like the little crunch of the crinkles as we bite down into the cookies. They are always obnoxiously and artificially colored by the coloring of the sugar crinkles. It's a bit startling, but very cheerful and appealing to small children.
Mint Crinkle Cookies
1 stick butter (1/2 cup)
3/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons peppermint abstract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
about 2 oz. of cake decoration crystals (the original recipe calls for one 2.25 oz. jar of green cake decoration crystals, but we use about half of a 4 oz. jar of colored sugar crystals, any color. Today it is "Decors Red Sugar Dessert Toppings")
350 F oven, preheated. It doesn't matter if it's a convection or regular oven. We've done it both ways. Grease a couple of baking sheets or use non-stick ones. We use ungreased, non-stick cookie sheets.
We usually use this quickie one-bowl method for mixing the ingredients. A fork works fine for all the mixing -- you don't need any fancy electric appliances or whisks or anything. Use a non-metal mixing bowl if you're using the microwave to melt butter.
Melt the butter (we use the microwave). It's OK if it's softened more than melted. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the extracts and the egg and the milk. Mix after each addition or after it's all added. Then add the flour. Before you mix in the flour, put the baking powder and salt on top of the pile of flour in the bowl. Mix it a bit, then mix all the dry stuff into the wet stuff. (Sometimes, we add the salt and baking powder to the wet stuff, mix it in, and then mix in the flour. Either way works.) Don't overmix. Finally, add the sprinkles and mix.
Roll small balls of the dough, maybe 1" or so in diameter, and place them on the cookie sheet. Flatten them slightly then bake until they are light golden (i.e. done). It takes about 8-12 minutes depending on how big and/or flattened the cookies are.
Remove cookie sheet from oven. Let it cool for a few minutes (or not, as you wish). Then remove the cookies from cookie sheet and eat. You can wait for the cookies to cool before eating if you'd like. They are good warm or at room temperature. These keep for at least a day or two. We don't know if they last beyond that because they're always eaten by then. They are best the day they're made.
With about 12-15 cookies per cookie sheet, we usually use two cookie sheets per batch of dough. So that's a couple-dozen cookies, give or take a bit. They spread a bit while cooking, but not a whole lot. It depends on how much they are flattened before cooking.
We like these with the peppermint extract. One of these days, we might try something else, such as almond or lemon or anise extract. Or maybe not. Why mess with success?
We like the little crunch of the crinkles as we bite down into the cookies. They are always obnoxiously and artificially colored by the coloring of the sugar crinkles. It's a bit startling, but very cheerful and appealing to small children.
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