Where it all began...

Apparently I make good cookies. Not just good cookies but awesome cookies. Not my words, the words of my family and friends. Don't get me wrong, I can follow a recipe. But I'm not really sure what makes them so delectible. I almost feel as though I am cheating my family, mostly my husband, out of the tastefulness of life when I make cookies from premade dough or pour them out of a box. They even have their own name: Shari Cookies. These "Shari Cookies" have become the only request of my family as Christmas presents and are a requirement at family parties. It all started Christmas 2005 when I tried to get a cookie exchange going. I made hundreds of cookies in my college apartment all by hand (I didn't yet have a mixer), in an oven that barely fit one pan. My roommate awoke to masses of baked goods covering each and every surface of our living space, save her bedroom and our tiny bathroom. I boxed them all up, well most of them, wrapped them in holiday flare, and placed them under the trees of my unsuspecting family members. With visions of sugar plums fleeing their dreams, they awoke to the sugar spender that has now become the traditional holiday staple. My goal is to get some practice this year. Not that I'm rusty. I absolutely adore baking. However, it seems as though I always go into the holiday cold, without the proper shoes, stretch and warmup. Not this year. This year I plan to outdo all the rest, which will be hard to do, for sure. And so, "The Cookie Project" was born. Each week I plan to make one type of cookie. It must be from scratch and have all the love and tenderness of warm homemade cookies and the subsidial milk, sans the slobber of my husband's spit on the spoon. So, one homemade cookie a week. This can't be good for our waistlines, but he's not complaining...

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Week Two: Iced Cinnamon Chip Cookies

Iced Cinnamon Chip Cookies
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 package (10 ounces) cinnamon baking chips

Icing:
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup shortening
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fulffy. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Fold in cinnamon chips.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 in apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

In a small bowl, combine icing ingredients; beat on high speed for 1-2 minutes or until fluffy. Spread over cooled cookies.


These might be my new fave. Warning: The previous sentence might be repeated quite a few times throughout this blog. They taste like a cool fall morning cinnamon roll breakfast. I had forgotten I had these cinnamon chips in my cupboard until I saw this recipe. They spread out quite a bit on the pan so I would recommend placing them in the recommended alottment from each other. The frosting is chunky for quite a bit so you'll know when you've mixed it enough. It gets nice and creamy smooth. I didn't have enough to spread on all the cookies the recipe made and I spread it on pretty thin. I would recommend making one and a half batches of the frosting. They are hard to stack as the frosting sticks to other cookies but it is totally worth it. Yummy...I enjoy them with a cup of toasted almond coffee while my husband prefers the 5 year old's choice of appie juice.
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1 comment:

  1. Shari MaynerSeptember 18, 2011 at 10:10 AM

    After a few days these cookies were still quite yummy. However, they lacked the moistness they had when they were first made. I took some to work in a plastic baggie and they crumbled. The taste is still there but the initial softness was gone.

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