Five spice crackle cookies

I have had a jar of Chinese five spice around for a while. Usually I use it on duck, but that isn't on regular rotation at home. When I saw this recipe in Bon Appetit I saved it immediately. It's a hit!

Five Spice Crackle Cookies

From Bon Appetit

Makes 16–18

Ingredients

• ¾ cup (1½ sticks) salted butter
• ⅔ cup (packed; 133 g) dark brown sugar
• ½ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
• 2 Tbsp. Chinese five-spice powder
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract
• 2¾ cups (344 g) all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar
• ¾ cup (83 g) powdered sugar, sifted

Method

1. Place racks in upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 375°. Cook ¾ cup (1½ sticks) salted butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it foams, then browns, about 4 minutes. Immediately transfer to a large heatproof bowl, scraping in any brown bits stuck to bottom of pan. Add ⅔ cup (packed; 133 g) dark brown sugar, ½ cup mild-flavored (light) molasses, and 2 Tbsp. Chinese five-spice powder and whisk vigorously until sugar is dissolved and mixture is smooth and emulsified, about 2 minutes. (It will look oily at first, but keep whisking.)
2. Add 1 large egg yolk and 1 Tbsp. vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract; whisk vigorously until combined and slightly lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Add 2¾ cups (344 g) all-purpose flour, ¼ tsp. Morton kosher salt, and 1 tsp. baking soda and mix with a rubber spatula until a soft dough forms and no pockets of dry flour remain.
3. Place ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar in a small bowl. Using a #20 cookie scoop (about 3 Tbsp.) and working one at a time, scoop out portions of dough and roll into smooth balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar to thoroughly and generously coat, then divide between 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing at least 2" apart (about 9 per sheet). Roll dough balls in granulated sugar again to create an even, thicker layer and return to baking sheets. Freeze, uncovered, 15 minutes.
4. Place ¾ cup (83 g) powdered sugar, sifted, in a small bowl. Working quickly and one at a time, coat balls in powdered sugar, rolling and pressing in slightly between your hands to create an even, generous layer that covers the entire exterior (like you are making a snowball); place back on baking sheets, spacing at least 2" apart.
5. Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets top to bottom and front to back halfway through, until puffed slightly and cracks have formed, 12–14 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets. (They will deflate a bit as they sit.

Coconut tahini cookies with candied ginger

I have all these ingredients on hand that I buy because certain food people tell me they are wonderful (coconut oil, tahini, etc.) and then I put them on my shelves and stare at them and am totally unclear on how to incorporate them into the every day food I make.

Thankfully, I read enough food blogs to get inspiration every once in a while - and Molly's blog on Coconut tahini monster cookies (with chocolate chips instead of ginger) made me run to my cabinets and check yup, I had everything except for the chocolate chips and toppings. A quick substitute of candied ginger and here we were, ready with cookies as a gift to our old neighbors in their new house. These are cakey cookies - lovely and soft and chewy. Next time I think I could cut the sugar a bit as I really don't have a sweet tooth, but they're pretty awesome as is, too.

Coconut tahini cookies with candied ginger
Adapted from My name is yeh

Ingredients

1 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 c melted virgin coconut oil, slightly cooled
1/2 c tahini
1/2 c granulated sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tb vanilla extract
3/4 c candied ginger, chopped
1/2 c flaked unsweetened coconut (optional)
sprinkles, optional

Method

Preheat the oven to 350ºf and line a baking sheet with parchment. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl.

In another bowl, combine coconut oil and tahini. Whisk in sugar until well combined. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, then mix in extracts. Finally, stir the flour mixture into the tahini mixture along with candied ginger.

Scoop cookie dough onto lined baking sheets, leaving a few inches between them for the cookies to spread. Top the dough with coconut and sprinkles if using.

Bake until the bottoms are lightly browned and the coconut is toasty, begin checking for doneness at 15 minutes. Let cool on the pans for 5 minutes, and then remove to a rack to cool completely, or eat them warm.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

A rummage through the cupboards revealed a large bag of sultanas that A's brother left with us. I'm not a huge raisin fan, but if you cover them with, say, a cookie, they're pretty damn good. So that's what I did. Thankfully when I Googled "oatmeal raisin cookies" the first thing that popped up was the glorious Smitten Kitchen website, so fate declared that I make them, since Deb Perelman is never wrong.

Oatmeal Raisin CookiesAdapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces, or 115 grams) butter, softened
2/3 cup (125 grams) light brown sugar, packed (I used demerara, which gave each cookie a little sugary crunch that I liked)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (SK says 1/2 but why not amp up the vanilla?)
3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour (I had self-raising on hand)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (SK says 1/2 but everyone loved the cinnamonny goodness)
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 1/2 cups (120 grams) rolled oats
3/4 cup (120 grams) raisins

Method

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth. In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together. Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the oats and raisins.

Chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, but heat oven to 350°F (175°C) before you scoop the cookies, so that it’s fully heated when you’re ready to put them in.

The cookies should be two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake them for 12 minutes (your baking time will vary, depending on your oven and how cold the cookies were going in but that's how long it took me), taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top. Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Amaretti Biscuits

My (male) boss at work brought these in one day and I loved them so much I asked for the recipe. Here it is:

Amaretti Biscuits

Beaten egg whites (4), caster sugar (300g), ground almonds (250g), amaretto (a big glug). Fold it together and bake for 15 minutes at 180C.

My version is slightly tweaked. I beat the egg whites with a tsp of cream of tartar to help them stay foamy. Once they formed soft peaks, I added the caster sugar and continued to beat until they were smooth and glossy. Ground almonds were folded in, along with 1 tsp of almond extract as I was out of amaretto. The first batch I baked for 15 minutes but they colored a bit more than I liked, so I adjusted the baking time to 12-13 minutes instead, so the centers of the biscuits are still a bit chewy. 

Pierre Herme Macarons

Pierre Hermé, London
Foodhall, Ground Floor, Selfridges
400 Oxford Street
London
W1A 1AB

A visit from N and J meant tramping around our old semester abroad neighbourhood, conveniently located next to Selfridges. J was picking up fancy English teas for his parents, while I headed straight for the Pierre Hermé counter to try some macarons. They're certainly not cheap - but they are worth it for a treat, and anyway, sometimes you enjoy things that come in limited quantities more, right? Above are a salted caramel, dark chocolate and green tea macaron. Salted caramel blew the others out of the water, and we nibbled away happily. It was the perfect tiny sweet to follow a gargantuan meal at Mangal Ocakbasi - from cheap and cheerful to luxury in no time at all.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

J gifted me with a 72 oz bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips before she went back to the US (thanks J!) So of course the first thing I did was make chocolate chip cookies. Looking at the back of the bag, I saw there was a recipe that included oats, and since oats would obviously cancel out the chocolate chips and make them calorie free, I decided to try out that option. Man they're good, you'd never even know they're healthy for you :)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from back of Nestle chocolate chip bag

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup (225g) butter
2 large eggs
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups porridge oats
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Method

Preheat oven to 190C / 375F.

Combine flour and baking soda in a small bowl. Beat brown sugar, butter and granulated sugar in a large mixer bowl until creamy. Beat in eggs, milk and vanilla extract. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in oats and chocolate chips; mix well. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 9 or 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 12 to 13 minutes for crispy cookies. Cool on baking sheets for 1 minute; remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Gingerbread Cookies

So my friend A happens to be a terrific baker as well as illustrator - while browsing her new blog I saw a recipe for gingerbread cookies that inspired me to pull out my Texas-shaped cookie cutter again. (I only have one cookie cutter, so everything around here is Texas-shaped). I included black pepper since I saw a different recipe that did that and it sounded intriguing, and threw in some ground cloves as well since I had them sitting around. The black pepper added a nice kick to the cookies in occasional bites - I might even try adding more next time.

Gingerbread Cookies

Adapted from Paper Scissors Stone
Makes 36 cookies

Ingredients

350g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp ground cloves
100g butter
175g light brown sugar
1 large egg
4 tbsp golden syrup

Method

1. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture – it should resemble fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and mix well.

2. In a different bowl, beat the egg and syrup together. Pour it over the flour/sugar and mix.

3. Wrap the dough in cling film and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Pre-heat the oven to 190C and line baking sheets with parchment paper.

4. Roll out the dough onto a floured surface so that it is about 3mm thick. Cut out your cookie shapes using a cutter.

5. Bake for 5 minutes and check to see if the cookies are brown. If not, keep checking every minute or so until they are nicely brown all over. Some of my batches took 5 minutes, others took 8, so I just kept checking until they looked right.

Super Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies

I have an incredible weakness for snickerdoodles. Somehow, though, the ones I make at home look nothing like the ones I remember eating when I was younger - they're much browner. Perhaps I roll them around in too much cinnamon, but at least they taste wonderful. These do indeed become super soft, especially after they are stored in an airtight container for a day. Not sure whether I like this recipe more than this one, but it never hurts to have more than one way to make a snickerdoodle!

Super Soft Snickerdoodle Cookies
makes about 3 dozen cookies

Adapted from The Kitchn

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1/2 cup dark brown molasses sugar
1 cup white sugar
3 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the cinnamon sugar:

1/4 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Method:

Heat the oven to 425°F. Gently melt the butter in a saucepan or in the microwave and let it cool while you mix the dry ingredients. Stir together the sugars, flour, spices, baking soda, and salt. Whisk the eggs into the cooled butter and add the vanilla. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, stirring just until it comes together.

In a soup plate or shallow bowl, mix together the white sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Form small 1 1/2-inch balls of dough and roll them in the cinnamon sugar. Place them on an unlined, ungreased baking sheet and flatten slightly. Bake for 7 minutes then remove and let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack.

The dough can be refrigerated for up to 5 days, well-wrapped. It can also be frozen in logs.

Three-Way Drop Cookies

I started out looking for a recipe to use up some of my glut of oranges, lemons and limes (I have a weakness for the pound-a-bowl man around the corner). That's how I stumbled on this recipe, which I tweaked a bit to use up other things I had around the house. It's pretty fun to make three kinds of cookies with one basic dough recipe. Not sure that the molasses sugar worked - the cookies came out awfully dark. Also, they're very flat, so I'm not sure if that's because I didn't manage to cream the butter and sugar for long enough, or if the dough wasn't cold enough, or what. Oh well, they still tasted good.

Drop Cookie Dough
Adapted from Serious Eats
- makes 45 cookies (15 of each flavor) -

Ingredients

225g (1 cup or 2 sticks) salted butter, softened
150g (3/4 cup) dark molasses sugar
60g (1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
250g (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

For Chocolate Chip:
1/2 cup chocolate chips or finely chopped dark chocolate

For Oatmeal-Blueberry:
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons rolled oats
1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons dried blueberries

For Citrus:
Zest of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lime
Zest of 1 orange

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C / 325°F.

2. Line three baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

3. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy (I used a hand mixer).

4. Add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue to mix one minute.

5. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and continue to mix until well combined.

6. Divide the dough into three equal parts in separate mixing bowls.

7. Add the flavoring ingredients—chocolate chips, oatmeal and blueberries, citrus zest—to each bowl and mix with a rubber spatula until well combined.

8. Spoon teaspoon-sized drops onto the baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.

9. Bake cookies until they are golden brown and slightly soft in the center, approximately 8 to 10 minutes.

10. Let cool at room temperature.

Almond Cookies

I was given a copy of Jamie's America for Christmas and have finally gotten around to making something from it. The recipes look delicious so when I was scrabbling around for some kind of sweet thing to make for an after dinner treat, I fell upon an almond and pine nut cookie recipe. Sadly, the store closest to me does not carry pine nuts, so I've adapted it a bit to make use of toasted almond flakes instead. These are fabulous - crispy and crunchy around the edges with a bit of chew in the middle, and full of nutty, buttery flavor.

Almond Cookies
Adapted from Jamie's America
Makes about 45 cookies

Ingredients

200g toasted almond flakes
110g sugar
75g soft brown sugar
100g melted salted butter
1 large egg
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
150g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
35g porridge oats

Method

Preheat oven to 180C / 350F.

Blitz 150g of almonds in a food processor until you get coarse crumbs. Put into a large mixing bowl along with sugars, butter, egg, golden syrup, vanilla extract, flour and baking soda. Mix well.

Add the remaining 50g of flaked almonds and porridge oats and fold into the mixture really well.

Line baking sheets with baking parchment. Drop heaping tablespoons of mix on to trays, leaving space between the cookies for spreading. I managed about 9 cookies per baking sheet. Do not flatten them, they will spread themselves in the oven.

Bake in oven for 10 minutes until golden around the edges. Cool on a wire rack and serve.

Texas Sugar Cookies

Since I bought an adorable Texas-shaped cookie cutter the other day, I had to make sugar cookies to test it out. This recipe for Mrs. Fields-style sugar cookies looked easy so I gave it a try and the results were good. The dough is easy to work with and holds shapes well, and it's not overly sweet, though I left off the additional sugar sprinkles that were recommended.

Texas Sugar Cookies (makes 2-3 dozen)

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup (170g) butter

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).

In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt with a wire whisk. In a large mixing bowl cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add the egg and vanilla, and beat until well blended. Scrape down sides of bowl, then add the flour mixture. Blend on low speed just until combined. Do not overmix.
Gather dough into a ball. Flatten the ball into a disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap or a plastic bag. Refrigerate one hour until firm.

On a floured surface, roll out dough to a 1/4 inch thickness. With cookie cutters, cut dough into desired shapes and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Decorate with colored sugars or sprinkles. Bake for 13-15 minutes, being careful not to brown. Immediately transfer cookies with a spatula to a cool, flat surface.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

This is basically the Tollhouse recipe on the back of a packet of Nestle chocolate chips, but I reduced the salt and omitted the nuts. They're absolutely phenomenal - crispy on the edges, soft and chewy in the centers. Super easy to make as well.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 4-5 dozen)

Ingredients

2 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup (227g) butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups (12-oz. pkg) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F/190C.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in small bowl. Beat butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract in large bowl until creamy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually beat in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Line baking sheets with foil and drop by rounded tablespoon onto greaseproof baking paper.

Bake for 9 to 11 minutes or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks.

Ginger Crinkles

The Homesick Texan is one of my favorite blogs because I am often a homesick Texan as well. As soon as I read her recipe for these ginger crinkles, I knew they had to be tried - I love gingery cinnamony things and her writing always makes me want to cook. I had to substitute black treacle for molasses again since I cannot find molasses here - it's probably why these are too sweet. But a cookie with a cup of tea or coffee works well...

Ginger Crinkles (makes 60 cookies)

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 egg
1/4 cup black treacle
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger
1/4 cup demerara sugar for dipping

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cream the oil, sugar, egg and black treacle. Mix together the flour, soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger and add to the liquid ingredients.

Roll dough into walnut size balls (about 1/2 a tablespoon) and dip into demerara sugar.

Bake at 350 until slightly brown for about 15 min. Do not overcook!

Lemon Cornmeal Shortbread Cookies

I saw this recipe on Everybody Likes Sandwiches and immediately saved it since I almost always have the ingredients for them in the house. Today I finally got around to trying it, and they're incredibly easy. Absolutely delicious, especially if you like buttery, delicate cookies - they're a little crumbly but not too sweet with a lovely lemony flavor. The cornmeal gives the cookies a special texture that I really liked. My batch made 29 cookies but I think maybe I should try sticking to tablespoon amounts of dough, since the smaller ones really flattened out in the oven. 

Ingredients:

2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
grated lemon zest from 1 lemon
Demerara sugar for sprinkling

Preheat oven to 180C/350F. In a large bowl, blend together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add in the vanilla and lemon zest and mix. In another bowl, combine the flour, cornmeal, cornstarch and salt and whisk together. Slowly add in the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture and stir until just combined. I found it easier to use my hands at this stage because the dough wasn't really combining well until I really got in there and squished it all together.

Line your baking sheet with foil, and using your hands, pinch off about a tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Press each ball with a fork and repeat, spacing each cookie about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes or until the undersides of the cookie are slightly golden. Cool on wire racks. Makes 18 cookies.

Crème Fraîche Clouds

I had a tub of crème fraîche leftover from Thanksgiving in the fridge, and after some quick Googling, I found this recipe for crème fraîche clouds. I swapped allspice for nutmeg and butter for shortening since I didn't have any nutmeg or shortening at home. I used heaping teaspoons of dough rather than tablespoons and found that it made 3 dozen rather than 2 dozen cookies. These are very tender, almost cake-like cookies (though I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that I subbed butter for shortening). The bit of spice gives it a nice flavor that makes it more interesting than a plain vanilla cookie. My sprinkles are ugly though (why would you sell white, yellow, green and pink sprinkles all jumbled together? Makes the cookies look diseased.)

Crème Fraîche Clouds (adapted from My Husband Cooks)
Yield: 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup crème fraîche
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat your oven to 180C (350F).
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
3. In a large bowl or mixer, cream together the sugar, crème fraîche and butter for about 3 min on medium speed. (NOTE: After each step, you should scrape down the sides of the bowl using a spatula or spoon to ensure that all of the ingredients are being integrated into the dough.)
4. Add the eggs and continue to mix until the mixture takes on a soft yellow hue and the eggs are completely distributed.
5. Add the vanilla and mix for about 30 seconds or until the vanilla is completely distributed.
6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the mix. If you are using a mixer, use low speed while adding the dry ingredients. Continue to mix until the dough is uniform.
7. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
8. Using a cookie scoop or spoon, place about 9 cookies on the sheet (each cookie is a heaped teaspoon of dough). Top each cookie with a bit of sugar or sprinkles. Place in the over and bake for 13-15 min. What you are looking for a brown ring along the base of the cookie and the top to have just a subtle browning.
9. Let cool for about 5 min. Eat immediately, or cover in an air tight container. They are good warm from the oven or at room temperature.

Double Dark Spice Drops

I joined an email recipe exchange and this is one of the ones I received. Apparently it's a variation on a King Arthur flour recipe, and I've twisted it a bit more to make it easier to make in the UK (no semi-sweet chocolate chips here, sadly). If you like dark chocolate and not-too-sweet, really soft almost-falling-apart cookies, you'll love these.

Double Dark Spice Drops (makes 48 cookies)

Ingredients:

125g unsalted butter

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup demerara sugar

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

150g dark chocolate, chopped

Directions:

Preheat oven to 190C. Line baking sheets with foil.

Combine the butter, sugars, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a mixing bowl. Beat until the mixture is smooth.

Add the egg and vanilla and again beat till thoroughly combined. The mixture will look a bit grainy; that's OK.

Beat in the cocoa.

Add the flour, beating slowly to combine.

Add the chopped chocolate bar, mixing until the pieces are well-distributed.

Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Space the cookies at least 1" apart.

Bake the cookies for 8 minutes; they should seem barely done. If you attempt to pick an oven-hot cookie off the baking sheet, it'll fall apart. Allow the cookies to cool right on the baking sheet.

Snickerdoodles (Revisited)

For H's birthday, I decided to make some snickerdoodles, but this time I was determined to follow the recipe much more closely in the hopes that they would come out the correct size and shape (unlike last time). The first dozen that I baked came out perfectly (see above), but then I think maybe my oven is hotter than the dial says it is, because the rest started getting super brown and they weren't developing the cracks in the top anymore. This is why I'm not that fond of baking - one tiny thing is off and it all goes a bit wonky. Oh well, at least I managed one batch of proper snickerdoodles for H...

Snickerdoodles

Saw this recipe and realized I had all the ingredients for it already so decided to give it a try. I halved the recipe but stupidly did not look up what the equivalent of 1 stick of butter is in grams and instead made a vague estimation with my eyes, so I'm pretty sure these cookies don't have enough butter in them since they didn't flatten out like they're supposed to and they weren't soft in the middle at all. Oops. Still taste good though - they're more like cookie nubbins rolled in cinnamon and sugar. Maybe next time I will try to be more precise. Also, the tray in the top half of the oven cooked faster and suddenly looked burnt (though they taste fine, what's up with that?)