Snowballs

Last week it snowed here.  For those who live where it normally snows, our little 1 inch dusting wouldn’t be a big deal.  For those who live in the deep south and are accustomed to snow being a rarity, understand just how excited we were! 

The bad thing (or good thing, depending on how you look at the situation!) is that snow around here rarely lasts more than a day.  Such was the case Thursday.  By the time we played in it, came in, got warm and dry, and went back out, it was starting to melt and turning into a muddy mess!  My children were pretty distraught.  So I decided since I had to make cookies for a funeral at church the next day, I would include the kids and we would make snowballs!  Of course until we dipped the first tray of them into the powdered sugar, my kids kept saying “These don’t look like snowballs!”  But then after the first dipping, they nodded their heads and said (quite emphatically!), “Snowballs!”  And so we ended our snow day with getting “snow” (powdered sugar) all over our kitchen while making snowballs.  Of course, these tasted a bit better than the real ones. 

Here’s the recipe.  It’s from Land O’ Lakes and I later discovered my mom’s recipe is the
same except hers calls for ¼ cup powdered sugar in the cookies instead of granulated

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 325°F. Beat the butter and sugar, add the flour and mix until combined.  Mix in the pecans.  Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 18-25 minutes or until very lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm and again when cool.



J's hands helping!



A's hands helping!

Cookies for Tired Teachers

When I was a kid, my mom would make these, package them up with the recipe attached and send them with us to school for our teachers for Christmas.  I even did this for some of my teachers in high school!  I got rave reviews!

2 egg whites, beaten stiff

2/3 cup sugar

pinch salt

¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

¼ teaspoon mint flavor

4 to 6 drops green food coloring

6 oz. chocolate chips (1 cup)

Heat oven to 350.  Gradually add sugar, salt, cream of tarter, mint, flavoring, and food coloring to the stiffly beaten egg whites.  Stir in chips.  Drop from teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheets.  Place sheets into oven and turn oven off immediately.  Leave in oven overnight.

Chewy Sugar Cookies (America's Test Kitchen)

I have always wanted to know the secret to chewy sugar cookies.  Thankfully America’s Test Kitchen has created such a recipe!   And you don't have to get your mixer out!

Admittedly, the first time I made these I forgot the vegetable oil.  The cookies were wonderful!  So I decided to leave it out.  However, the second time I made them, I needed a little oil (about 2 tablespoons) to make the dough hold together.  I think in that first baking I also left out some of the flour because I really didn’t need any oil to hold the dough together.  So, you can try leaving out ¼ cup flour or add a little oil.  I’m writing the recipe for 2 tablespoons oil. 

2 ¼ cups flour (best to weigh 11 ¼ oz.)

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

Wisk these ingredients together in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl:

1 ½ cup sugar plus 1/3 cup for rolling

2 oz. cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces

6 tablespoons melted butter, still warm

Wisk together and add

2 tablespoons oil (original recipe says 1/3 cup)

2 large eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla

1 tablespoon milk

Add flour mixture, stir (use some kind of spoon, not a wisk) just until it comes together. 

Use a 2 tablespoon scoop to scoop the dough (I used the medium one from Pampered Chef).  Roll in balls.  Roll in sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper).  Flatten with ¼ cup metal measuring cup (to 2 inch diameter).  Sprinkle more sugar on them (you can use colored sugar sprinkles to make them more festive).  Bake 350 for 11-13 minutes, or until slightly golden on edges.  Leave for 5 minutes, remove from tray to cooling rack.

*For the second batch, I used my small cookie scoop.  I don’t remember how long I baked them but I knew what they looked like when they were done so I just watched them.  Also, they are yummy iced with buttercream frosting but they're really yummy alone!