Snickerdoodle with fancy sugar and more good things to eat.

The other day I was so surprised and pleased to find a package delivered to my door.
It had this lovely bag of cinnamon spice vanilla sugar, from my dear friend who knows I love to bake.

I was inspired to make Snickerdoodles, childhood favorite, as they are rolled in sugar before baking.
I was hoping these simple cookies would highlight the fancy sugar.

Have no fear I am not living on cookies alone.
Here are some inspirations from what I have been making lately.
Yesterday I made a batch of my favorite coconut curried rice. I love it with sauteed greens and garlic cilantro baby lima beans. I was surprised to discover that this rice freezes very well. 
Last week's menus included polenta and fresh roasted asparagus.
I love tortilla soup which recently ended up on my dinner table.
All the fresh citrus my sister has been sharing, inspired me to make this salad again.


Snickerdoodles

Makes three dozen 3 to 4-inch cookies. Your mileage will vary by the size scoop you use.

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 stick  butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs

Rolling mixture: 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.


1) Preheat the oven to 400° if you are not going to chill the dough, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets parchment paper; set aside.

2) Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

3) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
 4) Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine.

5) Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine.

6) At this point,you can chill the dough for an hour (or overnight) before scooping it, or if it isn't too difficult to scoop into balls and roll make them now.

7) Once dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon.
8) Use a small ice-cream scoop or spoon to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar.

9) Place about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.

10) Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes.
 

11) Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack.

Winter squash, it's what I've been cooking.

 Just yesterday I roasted and steamed a very large winter squash we grew in the fall. It was warty and French: Galeux D' Eysines it is called. While each winter squash is slightly different in texture, flavor and character, you can use any of them in the recipes below.

There was so much lovely orange cooked squash I got inspired to make my winter squash spice soup.
I now have a half gallon for lunches, dinner and some to freeze for later.

I also decided to make these lovely winter squash biscuits, Genevieve found this recipe and I love them for a snack, with dinner or even toasted for breakfast. My squash was very moist, so when I added it to the dry ingredients, there was no way I could work it like the recipe calls for.
I made them into what my mother used to call "drop biscuits". She would make these instead of rolling the dough and cutting them out. The advantage is that you don't have to add more flour in order to work the dough, in fact you handle them less which is a plus when it comes to biscuits.

Here they are before they went into the oven. The baking time is the same but so much easier to make.

I saved some of the chunks of squash to heat up as a side dish to make a quick version of my "pumpkin" bouranee. I use the garlic cilantro butter that has now become a staple in my fridge.
I just shave off three or four slivers of the "butter", toss it on the squash before I heat it up. If you want more of the authentic flavor, you could sprinkle on some smoked paprika and a dash of coriander.

Cilantro Garlic Butter

Ingredients

1/2 cup soft butter
4 cloves garlic
1/2 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped

1) Start by whizzing the peeled garlic cloves in your food processor.
2) Add the fresh chopped cilantro. Whiz that a bit.
3) Add the soft butter and whiz some more until it's fairly smooth. It's doesn't have to be pureed.
4) Scrap into a small bowl and store in the fridge, try not to eat it on EVERYTHING :-)


You know I'll bet that butter would be great on the squash biscuits !! Better go try it right now ;-)