Snickerdoodles!

With no cakes on the horizon to decorate I needed to do something with the oven and my hands. After the gym, hanging Easter eggs outside (MORE on that later), baths and dancey dance's with the kiddies I put the kids to bed for the night, turned on Modern Family and got the KitchenAid out and set to work on these Snickerdoodles.

Thankfully I remembered to call Nanny J and she took the butter and eggs out for me so they were room temp and ready to go.

Assembled my ingredients and was about to turn on the mixer for the butter and sugar when I got a text from an old high school buddy. :) Our conversation kept me occupied throughout the whole baking process (we talked for over an hour... seriously, I'm such a girl sometimes). Lots of laughter, lots of baking and a few pictures... Here is what I did:


This is the dough in the bowl from the first batch (I made four batches). It was a bit stiffer than any of the other batches for some reason... But, the consistency was good (I used 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening) and it rolled up nicely... then I dropped into the sugar cinnamon mixture....


and rolled the dough around in it...



dropped the little balls onto the baking sheet (without parchment paper... I didn't think they were that sticky that they needed it). and put them in the oven for FOUR minutes at 375 degrees... Then I rotated them and put them in for another FOUR minutes


notice the little cracks? i love that...



Voila! They are moist, chewy AND crunchy. This first batch had a bit too much cinnamon and came out a little dark. I added more sugar to the bowl and the next batches came out lighter.

The cream of tartar though... I can taste it immediately. WHY do we need cream of tartar in Snickerdoodles? Anyone? I need to find out its role in the recipe and if I can decrease the amount.

I made 4 batches as each batch only made 2 dozen small cookies. I would have kept going but I ran out of butter :(
I will most def. make more this weekend after I tweak the recipe a little and I PROMISE to those of you out in CA reading this I will send you some.

OK, now I have to discuss the hanging of the Easter Eggs... wait for the next post...

Midweek Blues

I don't have a case of the Monday's today, but I woke up with a case of the midweek Blues for sure!
I don't have a cake to decorate for TWO weeks! That's no bueno.... My hands are starting to itch from inactivity! I kept telling myself on my drives home from work this week that I was going to bake once I got done with the gym. But, per usual my life got in the way.

TONIGHT I will bake especially because my fans on Facebook have weighed in that they would like some snickerdoodles. I found an awesome recipe on Tasty Kitchen (via Pioneer Woman) that I'm anxious to try out. I also really REALLY want to bake her best ever chocolate sheet cake w/ the 'best frosting you've ever had' on top. *NOTE TO SELF, call Nanny J as soon as this is posted to ask her to set out some eggs

Plus, I've been running a marathon in my head and although I've also been running a marathon at the gym as well- my mind still hasn't cleared all of the muck. I think I need to focus on something I love in order to gain some clarity. The oven beckons!!

thankfully Modern Family is on tonight and I pray it's a new one. I need some good ol' belly laughing asap. Plus I'll have the house to myself! woo hoo!!!!