Snickerdoodle Cookies

“This is the best cookie I have ever eaten.”
 
This was a comment made by one of my friend's when she ate the snickerdoodle cookies that I had baked for one of our crafternoon sessions a few weeks ago. I spent that afternoon making a pom pom. Others knitted, crocheted and painted. I can’t even remember the last time I made a pom pom, it was that long ago, too long. I felt quite a sense of achievement at the end when I got to cut open the thick donut of wool that I had been threading the whole afternoon to reveal a cute ball of fluff. It was such a simple and fun thing to make, and it made me happy. It’s an unwritten law that it’s impossible to be unhappy in a poncho and I think this also applies to pom poms. I think everyone needs more pom poms in their life. When was the last time you made a pom pom?

Crafternoon is when I get together with my lady friends and we get all artsy and crafty, and get advice on how to live life by reading out loud random self help books that we borrow from the library. It’s also an opportunity to get baking and that afternoon we had a range of baked goods including museli cookies, savoury spinach and fetta muffins and cream puffs courtesy of Rochelle’s grandmother. I made snickerdoodle cookies for the first time.

(Crafternoon headquarters)

Everyone kept asking me why it was called a snickerdoodle and I told them that I didn’t know. All I knew was that it’s a classic American cookie, to which someone replied “well with a name like that it must be American”. My research afterwards did not come up with a definitive answer. Some claim that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln aka ‘snail noodles’ which is a kind of pastry. Others suggest that the name has no particular meaning or purpose and is simply a whimsically named cookie that originated from a New England tradition of fanciful cookie names including Graham Jakes, Jolly Boys, Branble, Tangle Breeches, and Kinkawoodles. If anyone can shed anymore light on this, please share!
 
Regardless of why it’s called a snickerdoodle, it has been considered the perfert cookie (almost always) by Michael Ruhlman and I tend to agree. Snickerdoodles are easy to make and wonderfully fragrant from the cinnamon sugar coating. They have a great texture with a crisp exterior and a soft, cakey interior. When you bake cookies it can be hard to predict what they will look like as they spread while baking. I found that snickerdoodle cookies form quite well as it bakes and you get a nice shape. They are also great for dipping into coffee.

Snickerdoodle Cookies

(Recipe adapted from Joy of Baking. I added in some nutmeg, as well as using a mix of caster and brown sugar. I like my cookies to have a chewy texture and using brown sugar yields a softer outcome)

(makes 30-40 cookies)

Ingredients

•    2 ¾ cups (360 grams) all purpose flour
•    ½  teaspoon salt
•    ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
•    2 teaspoons cream of tartar
•    1 teaspoon baking soda
•    227g butter, softened at room temperature
•    1 cup caster sugar
•    ½ cup brown sugar
•    2 large eggs
•    1 teaspoon pure vanilla
(Note: Traditionally snickerdoodles are made using a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar as a leavening agent which is what I have used but you can substitute the baking soda and cream of tartar with 2 teaspoons of baking powder)
Coating:
•    ¼ cup caster sugar
•    2 ½  teaspoons ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 190C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.  

In a small shallow bowl mix together the coating of caster sugar and cinnamon. 

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, nutmeg, cream of tartar and baking soda.

Beat the butter, caster sugar and brown sugar together until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla extract. 

Add the flour mixture and beat until a smooth dough forms. If the dough is soft, cover and refrigerate until firm (about one to two hours).

Shape the dough into 1 inch (2.5 cm) round balls. 

Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat and gently flatten into about 1-1.5 cm discs. Place the cookie dough on the prepared baking trays, spacing about 2 inches (5 cm) apart. 

Bake the cookies for about 8 - 10 minutes, or until they are light golden brown and firm around the edges.The centers of the cookies will still be a little soft. Remove from oven and cool. 

Green Tea Shortbread Cookies with Black Sesame Seeds

With baking, there is always the endless search for that perfect recipe – the perfect vanilla cupcake, the perfect sponge cake, the perfect brownie, the perfect macaron…the perfect shortbread cookie. I think that I have found the perfect shortbread cookie recipe, it’s from Breakfast, Lunch and Tea by Rose Carraini – it has a rich flavour and a great crumbly texture.

Once you find that perfect recipe, it provides a good base for experimenting and trying different flavours. I find shortbread cookies very versatile in that you can make different shapes with it and make a lot of different variations by adding things into the basic dough, like chocolate chips or cocoa powder for a chocolate outcome or orange/lemon for a citrusy taste. You can add chopped nuts or spice it up with cinnamon or nutmeg. You can also dip the ends of baked shortbread into melted chocolate (which is known as royal shortbread).

I really like adding green tea (matcha) powder to baked goods, I like the flavour it contributes, especially for sweet things as it tempers the sweetness. Another bonus of using green tea is that it is known for it cancer fighting properties. To counteract the effects of a night of drinking, at the end of the night, some of my friends drink cans of green tea that you can buy from Asian supermarkets and mix it with some gin or vodka, convinced that it constitutes a nutritious drink and may reverse whatever damage that may have been done earlier.

I recently baked some green tea shortbread cookies and I also added in some black sesame seeds. Black sesame seeds have a stronger flavour than white sesame seeds, it’s slightly nutty but also has a bitterness which I think complements the green tea. There were a number of ways I could have incorporated the sesame seeds – I could have just sprinkled them over the top or included them whole. In the end I decided to toast the black sesame seeds and then grind them a little in a mortar and pestle to intensify its flavour.

Green Tea Shortbread Cookies with Black Sesame Seeds
(using basic shortbread cookie adapted from Breakfast, Lunch and Tea)

Ingredients

Basic shortbread dough
•    250g cold unsalted butter, chopped into small cubes
•    100g caster sugar
•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•    225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
•    60g rice flour
•    pinch of salt

Additional ingredients
•    2 tablespoons green tea (matcha) powder
•    1 ½ tablespoons black sesame seeds, toasted and crushed a little (toast sesame seeds by dry frying them in a wok or pan for 2-3 minutes, I added a few white sesame seeds as a guide as it can be hard to tell when black sesame seeds are toasted)

Method

Line baking trays with greaseproof paper.

Combine the butter, sugar, vanilla extract, plain and rice flours, green tea powder, black sesame seeds and salt. With the tips of your fingers, rub the butter into the flour mixture until it clings together in clumps. Keep working the mixture until the dough comes together.

Turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead a little until it is smooth and well blended.

(Tip: At any stage when you are working with the dough it feels too soft, place it in a bowl or glad wrap and refrigerate it for 15 minutes so that it hardens a little and is more workable)

To make the cookies you can either:
a)    roll the dough to about 5mm thick and cut into shapes, place on prepared baking trays and chill for 1 hour; or
b)    roll the dough into a cylinder shape/log and wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour, then slice into 5mm rounds and place them on the prepared baking trays.

 

(I went with option b)

Preheat the oven to 160C and bake the cookies for around 12 minutes until just turning golden. The shortbread should be cooked but remain pale. 

Oreo Cookies

The Sweet Adventures Blog Hop is the brainchild of Aussie bloggers Delicieux, The Hungry Australian, Dining With a Stud, The Capers of the Kitchen Crusader and 84th & 3rd. Every month there is a dessert theme for bloggers to participate in and this month is ‘Death by Chocolate’ hosted by The Hungry Australian.

To be honest, I generally bake relatively simple things. I think that one of the most satisfying things about baking is that you don’t have to outdo yourself to get a good outcome. A fancy chocolate dessert that has multiple layers and uses a number of different textures to construct it from a fine dining restaurant is always a real treat, but a good old fashioned brownie can also hit the spot. When chocolate came up as the Sweet Blog Hop Adventures theme for this month, the first couple of chocolate desserts that came across my mind and I’m sure crossed everyone’s mind were chocolate cake, cupcakes, brownies, mousse, pudding, slice... easy to make chocolate treats but deliciously satisfying, comforting foods.

Two weekends ago, The Kitchen Crusader and I made the trip down to Margaret River to visit our friend Nadia who works at Gabriel Chocolate. We stayed with Nadia and had access to her impressive selection of chocolate/dessert books. 

Flicking through her books to get some ideas, there were a lot of fancy things that I could have made but when I saw the recipe for Almost Oreos, I was sold. Oreos are a cookie that I love eating, I have never made them before and the recipe for it in Green & Black’s Organic Ultimate Chocolate Recipes: The New Collection looked really good and not too hard to bake so I wanted to try it. Oreos make a good after dinner treat and you can never seem to eat too many of them. So this is my blog post for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop – "Death By Chocolate" this month.

Summer dessert – Vanilla ice cream with homemade Oreos crumbled over the top.

Homemade Oreos are great, everyone should try making them as it’s more chocolately and not as sweet, and instead of the sweet icing like cream filling, you get a lovely white ganache.

Oreos

(Recipe adapted from - Green & Black’s Organic Ultimate Chocolate Recipes: The New Collection)

Makes about 20

Ingredients

For the cookie dough

•    140g plain flour
•    ½ teaspoon salt
•    1 tablespoon cocoa powder
•    75g caster sugar
•    25g icing sugar
•    25g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
•    100g butter, softened/room temperature
•    1 large egg yolk
•    ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
•    Optional  - to give the Oreos an extra chocolate hit, I ground some cocoa nibs that I bought from Gabriel Chocolate with a mortar and pestle and added them into the mix.

 Ground Cocoa Nibs

For the ganache filling
•    125g white chocolate, broken into pieces
•    40ml crème fraiche

Method

Sift together the flour, salt and cocoa powder in a bowl (add in ground cocoa nibs if using). Melt the dark chocolate in a heatproof bowl of barely simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water. Set aside to cool.

Using an electric beater, cream together the butter, caster sugar and icing sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk, vanilla extract and melted chocolate. Beat well to incorporate all the ingredients. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add in the dry ingredients and mix on a slow speed until a dough forms.

Turn the dough out onto a clean work surface and shape into a cylinder shape about 15cm long. Roll the cylinder on the work surface to even it out and then wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for at least 1.5 hours. 

Tips: To get an even cylinder shape for the cookie dough - make sure that you twist the cling film tightly and take it out of the fridge at regular intervals (every half hour or so) and roll it on a table so that it doesn’t take on a flatten side where it has been resting.
 

When the dough has rested sufficiently (it should be quite hard), preheat oven to 180C and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and place it on a board. Using a sharp knife, slice the cylinder into thin rounds (2.5mm). Place the rounds on the baking sheet and bake for 11 minutes. Once cooked, leave to cool on the sheets. You should get around 40 rounds from the dough.

I have a small oven which can only fit one baking tray at a time, so I sliced enough rounds of the dough to fill one tray and refrigerated the dough while I baked that tray. Then I would take out the dough and slice enough to fill another tray and bake. I refrigerated the dough between baking the trays so that the dough keeps its shape (ps. Perth it's quite hot at the moment, we have a week coming up of 37-40 degrees so if your kitchen isn’t as warm as mine it would not be necessary to refrigerate the dough all the time).

While the cookies are cooling, make the ganache filling. Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl of barely simmering water. Take the bowl off the heat and leave to slightly cool for 2-3 minutes, then stir in and incorporate the crème fraiche. Allow to cool for around 15 minutes at room temperature.

Melting the white chocolate

Stirring in the crème fraiche into the melted white chocolate

Turn half the cookies upside down and put a teaspoon of ganache in the center of each. Top with the remaining cookies and press gently together so that the ganache spreads until you can see it around the sides. Put the assembled cookies on a tray and refrigerate for around 30 minutes to allow the ganache to set. Then store the Oreos in the fridge in a sealed container.

Lessons learned: You shouldn’t put the cookies on top of each other to set as the weight of the ones on top squash the bottom ones which can result in the ganache spilling out over the sides. …opps…

Chinese Walnut Cookies

Chinese New Year this year falls on Monday, 23 January. Around Chinese New Year there are lots of gatherings, visits to friend and relatives to exchange wishes for the new year and eat! The Chinese love a bit of symbolism, so a lot of the things we eat during the new year have a special, generally auspicious meaning. You will find a lot of sweet treats offered during the new year as they symbolize a rich and sweet start to the new year.

So here is a sweet festive treat to welcome in the year of the Dragon in 2012 – Chinese Walnut Cookies.

Chinese walnut cookies are a popular treat and it’s something that I like to bake for Chinese New Year as walnuts symbolise happiness of the entire family. Walnuts are also considered a symbol of intellectuality as their shape resembles a brain. Walnuts are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, which are an essential nutrient for the human brain. Anyone who has grown up in an Asian family knows how much emphasis is placed on education and producing smart kids. So not only do you get a rich and aromatic cookie from the large amount of egg yolks and walnuts included in the cookie dough, you also score two symbolism brownie points.

 Do you think walnuts look like brains?

Chinese Walnut Cookies

Ingredients

•    150g shortening (grated to make easier to cream)
•    50g butter
•    150g caster sugar
•    pinch of salt
•    4 egg yolks
•    1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•    300g plain flour
•    ½ teaspoon baking soda
•    1 teaspoon baking powder
•    1 tablespoon cornflour
•    1 tablespoon milk powder
•    250g walnuts (lightly toasted in the oven for 7-10 minutes until aromatic – 200g crushed and 50g kept whole)
•    egg wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon of water)

 Tip: I grate vegetable shortening to make it easier to cream.

Method

Sift the flour with cornflour, milk powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl.

Use an electric beater to cream shortening with butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add in 4 eggs yolks and cream till smooth. Fold in sifted flour mixture, then add in 200g crushed walnuts and mix together well until it comes together and forms a dough.

Roll tablespoons of the dough into a ball and press lightly to form 1 ½ inch discs and place onto a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper (if the dough is too soft to roll into balls, chill in fridge for 10-15 minutes to make the dough easier to work with).  Press into each cookie a piece of walnut. Brush some egg wash on top of each cookie.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for around 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

Related posts

•    Chinese Peanut Cookies
•    Chinese New Year's Eve Dinner 2011