Ingredients:

3/4 cup soft shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1/4 cup molasses

2 1/4 cup All-Purpose Flour

2 tsp. soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

granulated sugar

First, mix your shortening, brown sugar, egg, and molasses together.

Add flour and dry ingredients, mixing well.  Chill in the refrigerator for a few hours, up to overnight.

Then comes the fun part!  Roll into balls…

And dip the top half in the granulated sugar.

Place on a greased baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes at 375 degrees.  Be wary – these overcook quickly.  Also, note that they do spread as they cook, so make sure they are spread apart on your baking sheet.

Voila!

As noted, these overcook easily – well, mine got a little burned.  They weren’t as soft as I would have liked, but they tasted DELICIOUS.  At the end of the night, I only had 4 left – out of 4 dozen.

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine or shortening

1 egg yolk

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all-purpose Flour

1/2 tsp salt

Jam of any flavor

First, mix together the brown sugar, egg yolk, vanilla and margarine.

After well mixed, add in your flour and stir.

Roll dough into balls and place 1″ apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  My cookies were pretty small.  The recipe says to dip it in egg white, but I really didn’t see the point of that other than to add nuts to it (which I omitted).  Gently press your thumb into the center of the cookie to make a well.

The recipe says to bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes, cool, and then fill with jelly.  I like the consistency of baked jams, so I baked for about 6 minutes, removed and filled them with jam, then put them back in for an additional 6 minutes or so.

Yum!

And cherry, too!

I think these may be my favorite so far, along with the pumpkin cookies.  They were delicious, and Joe, who requested them, ate the entire bag that I gave to him.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed (I used 1 cup of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)

2 3/4 cups of flour

2 eggs (I used egg beaters)

1 3/4 cup of canned pumpkin

1/2 cup shortening

1 tbl baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger

1 cup raisins

Mix sugar, shortening, pumpkin, and eggs together.  I find that the egg beaters add more liquid to the recipe, so you end up needing more flour, but I find that the taste isn’t lost at all.

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices) and add to the egg mixture.  Mix well.  I ended up using about the same amount of flour as the recipe calls for, mostly because of how wet the egg beaters make the batter.

Add raisins and mix.  The recipe also says to add pecans, but I hate pecans.  Blech.

Drop into teaspoonfuls onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 12-15 minutes (mine took about 13)

These cookies have a very different texture.  They’re not cakey, not crumbly, a little chewy, but not molasses-y.  They taste like pumpkin pie and are just, well, amazing.  The texture doesn’t distract from the amazing taste, and the raisins I used were nice and plump and just burst in your mouth.

Like most of these recipes, the recipe makes about 6 dozen cookies.  But don’t worry: the dough freezes well and can be kept until the next time you need pumpkin cookies!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1 tsp vanilla

2/3 cup shortening (I used margarine)

1 egg

1 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped nuts (I didn’t put these in)

Mix sugars, egg, vanilla, and shortening together until blended.  Add flour and dry ingredients, mixing well.  

Add chocolate chips (and nuts if you’re so inclined) and mix.

Good enough to lick.

Bake at 475 degrees for 8-10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Yum!

True, chocolate chip cookies aren’t really a challenge, but they are delicious.  I usually prefer my chocolate chip cookies with some molasses in them, but these came out nice and crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle.  Success!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar, packed (I used 1/4 cup splenda brown sugar blend)

1 cup shortening

2 1/2 cups flour (maybe decrease the flour a bit – they were a tad dry)

2 eggs

2-3 tsp of cinnamon (and I added some pumpkin pie spice)

1/4 tsp of soda

Start by mixing the sugar, eggs, and shortening.

Go, Mixer, go!

Now we’re ready to add the flour…

Yum.  I definitely licked some batter on this one.

Roll the finished dough into a 2 1/2 inch diameter roll.  Chill for several hours or overnight.

Slice and bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

These were delicious and not overly pumpkin-y.  They were simple and easy, and a hit with everyone.  

*Sorry for the poor pictures, my husband borrows my DSLR for a class and I can’t always use it

These were a little time consuming in that they require some chilling, and you have to make the filling as well, but overall, these were pretty easy.  Read more for my notes and suggestions.

Ingredients for cookies:

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 tsp soda

2 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp salt

Ingredients for Filling:

24 maraschino cherries, chopped

1/2 cup maraschino cherry juice

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons of butter

3 tablespoon cornstarch

1 cup orange juice

As seems to be the norm with these recipes, I used about 1/2 cup less sugar than the recipe called for.  After beating the eggs, sugar, vanilla, and shortening, I added the flour slowly.  After 2 cups, I decided it was enough.  I then added the salt and the soda, and wrapped it up in plastic wrap to chill for an hour in the fridge.

Once the dough was in the fridge, it was time to move on to the filling.  First, the sugar and cornstarch get mixed together in a cool pan.

I chopped up the cherries in the blender…

Then I added everything else to the pan.  Let it heat to a boil, then boil for 1 minutes, stirring constantly.  As could be expected, it turned into a jam-like consistency.

Yum.  Look how red thos maraschino cherries make everything!

After chilling an hour in the fridge, it was time to roll out the dough.

I didn’t have a cookie cutter, so I used the top of a canister of cinnamon.  Perfect size!

First, the bottoms are made and put on the baking sheets.

Then, it’s time to add the jam.  I think I added too much jam per cookie.  Whoops.

Next, the tops go on and the sides get crimped with the edge of a fork.

Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

The cookies on this came out REALLY tasty.  Unfortunately, the filling did have a little bit of that cherry cough syrup taste.  Next time, I’m using strawberry jam, or tart cherries.

EDIT:  Okay, apparently my tastebuds are crazy.  Everyone RAVED about these cookies.

So, when I began this challenge, I was pretty amped to give the Snickerdoodles a try.  I made them last night (Thursday) and by 3 PM today, all 4 dozen were gone. 

Follow the jump for more!

The wonderful thing about Snickerdoodles is that any baker will have all the ingredients readily available.  In my case, I had all except for the cream of tartar.  Now, I freely admit that I have never used cream of tartar before, nor do I really understand what it is, but I am fairly certain I know where it should be in a grocery store.  I stood for about 20 minutes staring at the spices and I swear that it did not exist.  So, no cream of tartar in my Snickerdoodles.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup shortening (I used 2/3 veggie shortening and 1/3 butter)

1 tsp baking soda

2 3/4 cups flour (I used 2 1/4 cups)

cinnamon and sugar mixture for coating

The recipe called for shortening that was at least part butter or margarine, but I prefer to use vegetable shortening (for a myriad of reasons).  Instead, I used 2/3 cup shortening and 1/3 cup butter.  Mix those together, then add the flour, salt and soda.

I also wanted to take the opportunity to get a picture of my new flour sifter in action.  I still don’t really understand the point of a sifter (I’ve never had a problem with lumpy flour) but darn it, if it’s a baking tool, it’d better be in my kitchen.

With this recipe, I was pretty careful about how much flour I put in.  I ended up with about 1/2 cup less than the recipe called for.  I don’t know where the authors of this cookbook lived, but apparently they needed massive amounts of flour to get their cookies to come out alright.

As you can see, it came to a nice, thick, doughy texture.

Time to get rollin’!

1 inch balls

Rolling the balls of dough around in the sugar/cinnamon mixture may have been the best part.

Bake at 400 for 8-10 minutes.

Four dozen Snickerdoodles, gone in less than 24 hours.

These cookies came out more cake-like than I expected, but really delicious.  The recipe makes 6 dozen, but I burned one batch on the bottom (oops).  

These were a HUGE hit with everyone.  I took them to our Knit Night, and our bartender/friend Joe got a tummy ache from eating too many.  Today, I brought them to school and my two favorite students (including the original Snickerdoodle baker) couldn’t stop eating them.  In fact, Snickerdoodle girl ended up taking all the rest home with her.

Needless to say, I will be making these again.

Follow the jump for more!

  This is a no bake recipe, and a very quick one at that.  The recipe called for a double boiler, but I don’t have one (how that happened I have no idea) so I used the old standby of a mixing bowl sitting on top of a pot, as you can see on the left.  This was after I added all of the chocolate (semi-sweet), marshmallows and butter (earth balance – after all, I did say vegan).  The marshmallows took a bit to melt.  Also, the recipe says to melt everything until smooth, but I like a lot of marshmallow, so I didn’t melt them all the way.  I left them kind of chunky, and I think it turned out great.

Ingredients:

6 oz. of semi-sweet chocolate

14 Large marshmallows (I eye-measured tiny marshmallows)

1/4 cup butter

1/3 cup coconut

1 cup rolled oats

  If you’re not familiar with working with chocolate, you may not know why a double-boiler (or in my case, a bowl on top of a pot) is necessary.  If you try to melt chocolate in a pot or pan, you’ll find that a lot of the chocolate will end up sticking to the pan and/or burning.  Using a double boiler is way easier and painless.  As you can see, it melts evenly and doesn’t harden on the sides.  Look how pretty my fork looks covered in that wonderful semi-sweet chocolate.

  Adding the oats and coconut!  I personally ALWAYS keep a container of rolled oats lying around the house.  As I mentioned before, Betty’s Oatmeal cookies are a staple in my household, and therefore make it necessary to have rolled oats at all times.  I was pretty excited about the coconut in this recipe because I really like coconut in sweets.  

  All melty and delicious!

Dropped into spoonfuls and refrigerated.

These were seriously awesome.   Not overly sweet, thanks to the semi-sweet chocolate, and the oats gave it just the right amount of crunch.  I gave one to my friend Steph, and she remarked that they tasted somewhat like Girl Scout Samoas.  

When you bite into them you can see the bits of unmelted marshmallow, and that just makes it all worth it.

Next time:  Snickerdoodles?

Betty

For my first foray into Crocker-dom, I decided to try out these Chocolate Pinwheels.  I had 2 squares of unsweetened chocolate to get rid of, and these bad boys fit the bill.  

Recipe and more pictures after the cut.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Shortening (I used Veggie)

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups of All Purpose Flour

1 tsp of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

2 oz. unsweetened baker’s chocolate (2 squares)

First, mix the eggs, sugar, shortening, and vanilla together.  Then, add flour by sifting.  Mix in the baking powder and salt.  When combined, divide dough in half.  Melt 2 oz of chocolate (I melted in the microwave, worked fine) and mix into one half of the dough.  Chill for 1 hour.

Roll out white dough into a oblong shape, as rectangular as you can get it.  I had to knead the dough with my hands a bit as it had dried up a little in the fridge (oops).  Roll out the chocolate dough to the same shape and place it on top of the white dough.  Roll width-wise (to form a log-ish shape) and chill again.

Cut dough into 1/8″ slices.  Put the slices on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Notes:

The dough did end up being a tad too dry.  The cookies came out more crumbly than I would have liked, but still yummy.  Tastes like a sugar cookie with some chocolate mixed in.  Next time, I will add less flour to the mix – probably 2 cups or less.

So, once a week, I will bake up a new batch of cookies from one of the recipes in this book, and chronicle my experiences here, in this blog.