snickerdoodles

today's post is a guest entry by liz mcadams, prolific knitter of babywear, nice neighbor, good friend, and food outing partner. she has made an appearance here previously, revewing my banana muffins. here she shares her special recipe for snickerdoodles! believe me, this girl knows her stuff! :::::



In this cookie, an old-fashioned treat is brought back to life. Snickerdoodles are a light crispy butter cookie rolled in sugar and cinnamon. Makes the most delicious bite – perfect paired with a cup of tea or as a late night snack.


Snickerdoodles

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour plus 2 teaspoons
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a medium mixing bowl, beat the butter for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup of sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Beat until butter mixture is light and fluffy.

Then, beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour slowly – you may need to stir in the last ¼ and 2 teaspoons of flour (if mixer is not super powerful). Chill in refrigerator for a half and hour. Now pre-head the oven to 375 degrees. Wait 30 minutes until cookie batter is cool.

Mix 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon. Roll cookie batter into 1 inch ball, coat in sugar and cinnamon mixture. Place on ungreased cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to a wire rack, cool 10 minutes.

coco choco sandwiches

melty chocolate sandwiches with coco jam and nuts

my relationship with coco jam has been a bit of a long process. i first came upon it some weeks ago while shopping at a tiangge. i had never heard of it before and i didn't know what to do with it other than what the lady selling it told me (to spread it on some bread which didn't really sound that exciting or appetizing), but it smelled so good that i bought a small jar of it. for weeks it sat on my desk unused. i would just open it up occasionally and smell it and that was good enough for the time being.

then one day as i was rummaging through the 23rd wonder of the world aka my parent's pantry (see previous blog entry) and i found a couple of bars of meiji black chocolate and i instantly thought of my little jar of coco jam. i broke a piece of chocolate off the bar and dipped it into the brown gooeyness and took a bite. dark, slightly bitter chocolate and sweet gooey coconut - it was pretty dang good.



so for the next week, whenever i felt like i needed a bit of sweet, i broke off a piece of chocolate and spread it a bit of the jam on it and had it like that. it wasn't something that i didn't have a lot of in a sitting, the flavors were strong and the coco jam would get a little too sweet after awhile so a piece here and there really did satisfy. but soon i felt like i really wanted to do something with it, i wanted to make a finished product - a dessert and not just a snack! ok, well a snacky dessert. a desserty snack?

i wanted to act fast. the impulse was with me and i wanted to do something sort of spontaneous and easy with stuff that i didn't need to go out and buy. so i came up with this sandwich that isn't anything out of the ordinary but @)#@)SDFJWELKJFE)(* so good. the bread balances out the strong and sweet flavors of the dark chocolate and coco jam and the nuts add..er.. nuttiness! you can use whatever nuts you like. we just happened to have hazelnuts here (which was kind of weird). macadamia nuts would be super good with this!



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bread
coco jam
dark chocolate
crushed nuts


1. break up piece of chocolate and arrange on bread, leaving a margin on the edges so that the chocolate doesn't spill over the sides as it melts.
2. sprinkle over with nuts. place in oven/ toaster oven until bread is toasted and chocolate is melty.
3. heat coco jam in microwave so that it has a more spreadable consistency for only a 2-3 seconds. it melts really quickly and will start to bubble and crystalize if you cook it any longer. spread coco jam over the chocolate and nuts. cover with another slice of toasted bread and push down so the filling spreads and oozes out.
4. eat!