Christmas Cookies

• This recipe is modified from one available on the Hersey Kiss website, their Triple Chocolate Cookies - I didn't feel like going into a chocolate coma, so I changed it to a sugar cookie recipe. I also really hate cleaning up after cooking/baking, so I like to use as few dishes as possible. That's why I use oil instead of butter (easier to mix) and don't bother sifting dry ingredients together in a separate bowl. These turned out just fine.
• 
  
• 1/2 C vegetable oil
  3/4 C granulated sugar
  3/4 C packed light brown sugar
  2 tsp vanilla extract
  2 eggs (1/2 C Eggbeaters)
  1 Tbsp milk
  2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
  1 tsp baking soda
  1/2 tsp salt
  Around 45 Hersey Kisses
  
  
  Remove wrappers from chocolate pieces. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  
  
  Mix oil, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in large bowl until well blended. Add eggs and milk; mix well.
  
  
  Stir together flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to sugar mixture, mix until well blended.
  
  
  Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet.
  
  
  Bake 10 to 11 minutes or until set. Gently press Kiss (no, not with your face, that would hurt) in center of each cookie; remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. 
• 
  
• Makes about 45 cookies.

Snickerdoodles!

Snickerdoodles used to be my favorite cookies in the world, and I haven't made any for a long time. I lost an old recipe I had, which I remember being phenomenal, but this one is pretty good too. Good enough that Dave consumed half a tray in about two minutes, then made a new house rule: I am only allowed to bake once a month, lest he get fat. I guess moderation is a concept beyond him.

Snickerdoodles

1/2 C butter, softened
1/2 C shortening
1 1/2 C white sugar
2 eggs (1/2 C eggbeaters)
2 t vanilla extract
2 3/4 C all-purpose flour
2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
3 T white sugar
3 t ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375.

Cream together the butter, shortening, 1 1/2 C sugar, the eggs and vanilla. Mix in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. You may find it easiest to mix in the last three first, then the flour one cup at a time. This mixing should be done by hand; the consistency of the cookies is drastically different otherwise.

Mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon for the topping. You will have to coat each cookie in this, so you will find in much easier to put the cinnamon sugar in a sandwich bag.

You will probably need two cookie sheets going at once, because this makes about 48 cookies. Cover each sheet in parchment paper, it will make you life considerably easier.

Shape the dough by rounded teaspoonfuls into balls. Roll them lightly between your palms for a few seconds to form them. The dough is very sticky, so make sure to wet your hands with cold water first, and do not roll for too hard or too long, or you will just make a mess. x_x

Drop the dough balls one by one in the sandwich bag, shake it a little to coat in the topping, then place on a cookie sheet. Wasn't that easier than rolling each one?

Bake sheets one at a time for 8 minutes. Only 8. When you take them out the tops of the cookies will have cracked, and in the cracks you may see wet dough. DO NOT cook them longer. They will just harden. You want these to be chewy cookies.

If you are able to put one tray of 12 cookies in every 8 minutes, this shouldn't take you much longer than an hour to do.

Granola Cookies = Amazing

As it has been hovering around 0 for the past few days, and is currently -6 degrees, I wanted to bake. I also want to comply with the diet, so I found the healthiest-looking cookie recipe I could and added even more stuff to it. The result is pretty amazing.

Granola Cookies

1/2 C of butter, melted (1 stick)
3/4 C white sugar
2 eggs (1/2 C eggbeaters)
1 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
2 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 t vanilla
1/2 t salt
1/2 C chopped walnuts
1/2 C dried cranberries
1 apple, peeled and chopped (a crisp, flavorful apple - one you would use in a pie)
1 1/2 cup rolled or old fashioned oats

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Beat in eggs until well blended.

Combine the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and salt; stir into sugar mixture until well blended.

Fold in the walnuts, dried cranberries, apple and oats. Drop dough by spoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto an un-greased baking sheet.

Bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove from baking sheet while still warm and cool on wire rack.

I was looking for a cookie recipe that kind of tasted good, and that I also felt good about eating. These are unbelievably delicious, and I feel good about eating them. Possibly all of them. Tonight.

Aunt Lydia's Sugar Cookies!

Technically, Lydia was my great, great aunt. She was the second of eight children born to Allison Henry Porter (whom I am named after) and his wife Joanna. Lydia's younger sister, Mary, was my great grandmother. As far as I am aware, this is Lydia's original recipe. They have always been hugely popular in my family, and are always referred to as "Aunt Lyda's sugah cookies" (with a Texan accent).
Making these cookies is my oldest cooking memory, and this is the first time I have made them on my own. I recently became the owner of a copy of The Porter Family Cookbook, put together in the late 80s by my grandmother. Not only does it have hundreds of beloved family recipes, it has a family tree dating back 150 years. One of my goals in life is to update this book and add some historical chapters to it, and have it actually published.

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

2 1/4 C flour
1/4 t salt
2 t baking powder
1/2 C Crisco
1 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten (1/2 C eggbeaters)
1/2 t vanilla
1 T milk

Cream the Crisco and sugar together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, sift the flour, salt and baking powder together.

To the sugar mixture, add the eggs, vanilla, milk.

Then add the dry ingredients. Mix thoroughly and chill. The dough must be cold enough that the cookies can keep their shape, so a few hours in the refrigerator is best.

Roll the dough thin on a floured board - I use a large plastic place mat, as this makes clean up easier. Cut into shapes or rounds. Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes.

I decided to make these cookies today because it was snowing. All. Day. Below is a photo of the result of one day of snow.

Also, making cookies gave me an excuse to use the awesome cookie cutters I got for Christmas.
Who wouldn't want cookies in the shape of a beehive or a pirate ship?

Yum.