Snickerdoodles

In spirit of the holidays (albeit a bit on the late side) I'm posting a recipe from my mother-in-law for Snickerdoodles.  I'd never eaten a snickerdoodle before, let alone baked one. Now, I have a new favorite cookie! Hope you enjoy! (Thanks Cyndi H.!)

Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:

3 C. Flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 C soft butter (2 sticks) at room temp.
1 1/2 C sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten first before adding
1/4 C milk
Cinnamon-Sugar mixture (for coating)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375° Sift dry ingredients into a medium bowl and set aside.
Put butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream well.
Stir in vanilla and eggs and cream well again.
Add the milk, stir.
Add dry ingredients to mixture, mix well, then cream all together well.
Roll one teaspoon of dough in a cinnamon-sugar mixture to fully coat and place on greased cookie sheet (use a sheet with little or no lip) and bake for 10-11 minutes. (time may vary from oven to oven)

Makes approx. 36 cookies.

High altitudes: increase flour by 1/4 Cup and oven temp to 380°

Tip: If you don't have soft, room temperature butter, but need it for a recipe and don't have time to wait for it to soften up, grate it with your cheese grater. Works wonders and it creams up in your recipe well. I did it with this recipe as well as others and it worked great!

National Peanut Butter Cookie Day

I think I've found my favorite day of all days!  June 12th, National Peanut Butter Cookie Day.  I am a huge peanut butter fan and any kind of dessert, cookie, cake, etc. that includes peanut butter is a winner with me.  Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are my biggest downfall.

Recently, they've come out with Reese's Minis.

But I think my favorite out of all of the different sizes and flavors, is the Reese's Egg that comes out at Easter time.

There's just something about the flavor and texture of that one that is just divine!  Mmmmmm, yummmm.  *sigh* and now I want some, but it's the middle of the night and we're out of any candy.  (insert sad pouty face)

Anyway, I digress.....

Did you know that there's a National Peanut Butter Board out there?!  They've got all kinds of fun and weird facts.  And let me just say, people will do just about anything to get recognition.  Some guy named Tom Miller, pushed a peanut, using his nose, to the top of Pike's Peak.  That's 14,000 feet!  What the....??? Why would you do that?!  Apparently, it took him just under 5 days to accomplish that.  Actually, I think that's quite impressive, in a bizarre sort of way.  I don't think I could make it to the top of any mountain in that amount of time unless I was driving it.  But really, that image give my a crick in my neck just thinking of it.

But back to Peanut Butter and the cookie... I've had some amazing peanut butter cookies in my time and honestly, there is one that I've loved more than any.  It's not really a cookie, though.  You don't need to bake it.  It's more of a peanut butter ball, than anything else.  The recipe is quite simple:

Peanut Butter Balls1 Cup of peanut butter
1 Cup of corn syrup (I use light Karo syrup)
1 1/4 cups of powdered milk
1 1/4 cups of powdered (confectioners) sugar
Directions:Mix all together, roll into balls.  At this point, you can roll each ball in some more powdered sugar to keep from sticking to each other, but that's optional.

I learned that in elementary school and never forgot it.  Out of everything that I learned in school, that's the one thing that's stuck with me... Sheesh!  No wonder I'm such a mess!