Dirty Cookies (and a few others)
Sorry I've been a little sporadic about posting. I have been making travel plans. I received my Peace Corps nomination the second week of December, and I booked my tickets for backpacking for three months in South America today. It's all going to be quite the adventure, and I'm completely stoked!
In honor of Colorado and snow and general beauty, I thought I would share the view from the country club I worked at in October when it snowed. Looking back, that was a pretty good gig with good people, good tips, and awesome views every day. It's finally looking like Christmas here, and I'm excited to see old friends and have my family back together for a bit before I embark on my next journey.
Anyway, on to some food. I went on a Smitten Kitchen stint with a friend a few weeks ago, with varied results. We made cheese straws, nutmeg maple butter cookies and orangettes. The cheese straws (with about triple the red pepper flakes called for) were absolutely delicious, and I have since made them again. The maple cookies were glorified butter cookies, which was fine if you're a fan of butter cookies, which I'm not. The orangettes ended up too bitter - I assume we didn't blanch the peels long enough - and we messed up on the chocolate because we ran out of time. You really need to dip each orange peel in the melted chocolate - don't try to throw them all in and coat them that way because the chocolate will separate. I may try the orangettes again when I don't have a deadline, but I'm not much a fan of orange not in its natural form.
On the smitten kitchen track that I seem to be running, this blog really should just be "A tribute to Deb, adapted for altitude." I just can't get enough, though, and her pictures make me want to immediately transfer every recipe from the screen to my stomach. My photography prowess is sadly lacking, and our kitchen is perpetually messy with things that I don't have space to move elsewhere. On that note, I made another smitten kitchen recipe with extra pumpkin we had in the fridge. These pumpkin cupcakes were light and moist and altogether too much fun to decorate. I think next time I'll fill the centers with frosting rather than just the tops, or make all mini cupcakes (I made 16 minis and the rest big this time).
And now for the cookies in the title...
In honor of Colorado and snow and general beauty, I thought I would share the view from the country club I worked at in October when it snowed. Looking back, that was a pretty good gig with good people, good tips, and awesome views every day. It's finally looking like Christmas here, and I'm excited to see old friends and have my family back together for a bit before I embark on my next journey.
Anyway, on to some food. I went on a Smitten Kitchen stint with a friend a few weeks ago, with varied results. We made cheese straws, nutmeg maple butter cookies and orangettes. The cheese straws (with about triple the red pepper flakes called for) were absolutely delicious, and I have since made them again. The maple cookies were glorified butter cookies, which was fine if you're a fan of butter cookies, which I'm not. The orangettes ended up too bitter - I assume we didn't blanch the peels long enough - and we messed up on the chocolate because we ran out of time. You really need to dip each orange peel in the melted chocolate - don't try to throw them all in and coat them that way because the chocolate will separate. I may try the orangettes again when I don't have a deadline, but I'm not much a fan of orange not in its natural form.
On the smitten kitchen track that I seem to be running, this blog really should just be "A tribute to Deb, adapted for altitude." I just can't get enough, though, and her pictures make me want to immediately transfer every recipe from the screen to my stomach. My photography prowess is sadly lacking, and our kitchen is perpetually messy with things that I don't have space to move elsewhere. On that note, I made another smitten kitchen recipe with extra pumpkin we had in the fridge. These pumpkin cupcakes were light and moist and altogether too much fun to decorate. I think next time I'll fill the centers with frosting rather than just the tops, or make all mini cupcakes (I made 16 minis and the rest big this time).
And now for the cookies in the title...
A while back, the high school Future Problem Solving teams my mom coaches (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read about it here) all came over to our house to work on their practice competition. I made an old recipe from my grandma's cookbook to get their creative juices flowing with a little bit of sugar.
These little gems are called Dirty Cookies, and they are molasses spice cookies covered in sugar.
Dirty Cookies
Adapted from Aunt Dede's Favorite Recipes
Ingredients:
If you live at altitude, use the quantities in parentheses
1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups sugar (1 3/4 cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs (+ 1 tablespoon milk)
1/2 cup molasses (5/8 cup)
4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking soda (3 teaspoons)
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ginger
A bowl of water and a bowl of sugar
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Cream butter and sugar. Add salt, eggs, molasses, (and milk) and mix. Sift dry ingredients and add to mixture. Roll batter into small balls (they expand a lot). Dip them in water, then in granulated sugar. Place balls 2" apart on a greased cookie sheet. Bake 12-15 minutes at 350ºF.
I prefer them a little soft, especially since the sugar makes a delightful crisp contrast to a soft cookie.
Enjoy!
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