Saturday, July 14, 2012

Snickerdoodles

Have you seen the Cookie Monster "Call Me Maybe" spoof?

     

Pretty great, right?
If you have not seen it yet, please do. Who doesn't love Sesame Street parodies and spoofs? 
"Cereal Girl" will forever be my favorite.

In the vein of cookies and sharing I am making snickerdoodles for a coworker's birthday 
and the lovely Norwegian guests we have staying with us in San Francisco. And for my roomies. 
But they only get the dough.    


Snickerdoodles
     from Sweet Cream and Sugar Cones
     yields 30+ cookies

**chill the dough for 2 hrs before baking**

Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cups sugar
2 eggs

For dusting
1 tbsp cinnamon
¼ cup sugar

Directions
In a bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, and salt. Set aside.

Using a standing mixer or electric one, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2 minutes or so. One at a time add in the eggs. Wait until each is combined before adding the next. 
Scrap down the sides of the bowl and slowly add the flour mixture in, but don't over mix. Stop mixer just as the flour is all combined.

Adding in the eggs individually.

Cover the dough and let chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours or over night. 

Preheat oven to 350°. Position oven racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
In a small bowl whisk the cinnamon and sugar together. Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop balls of dough into the cinnamon-sugar bowl, cover dough in the cinnamon and sugar, and place on cookie sheet. Do not flatten into a disc, these cookies spread while baking so space them 3 inches apart.

Use a small, 1 oz. ice cream scoop.
Keeps the cookies consistently the same size.

Bake for 5 minutes then you will rotate the sheets top to bottom, front to back. Bake for 7 more minutes until the cookies are golden.

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack. Serve with - what else? - milk!


Pesto

Fresh basil is one of my favorite scents. I buy enough to keep a small bouquet out on the kitchen counter. 
I love it that much. 

Making Pesto

Ingredients
lots and lots of basil, for this I used 2 bunches
3 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup olive oil, about
a handful of pine nuts
a small handful of Parmigiano-Reggiano
some salt

Put all these ingredients in a Cuisinart and blend together until smooth.


You don't want your pesto too runny, rather a creamy paste. 

Pesto originated in Genoa, in northern Italy. Serve with your choice of pasta, the Genoese would pair pesto with a trofie, a small twisted noodle made by hand. Since practically no one makes homemade noodles anymore (although it's really fun and it tastes great) I'd recommend a gemelli, penne, or fusilli noodle as similar substitutes. 

On weeknights I do not always feel up to boiling water and cooking noodles, so instead I made some grilled sandwiches with pesto. 

Dinner last week - Pesto & Tomato Grilled Cheese

Afternoon snack - Pesto & Parmigiano-Reggiano on toast

Buon appetito!