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Holiday cooking
Nov. 28th, 2012 08:52 amOver Thanksgiving weekend, I made something like 8 dozen snickerdoodles (cinnamon sugar cookies), plus two or three dozen haystacks, the kind made with chow mein noodles.
My wife has shown me up by making an *amazing* lemon meringue pie yesterday, which is much harder. Still, I will share my snickerdoodle-making prowess, for I accidentally discovered an amazing snickerdoodle secret -- then made more batches to test it.
Start with Mrs Sigg's snickerdoodle recipe, which is perfectly good in its own right. But use 3 tsp of baking *powder* and one of cream of tartar instead of the recommended baking *soda* and cream of tartar. You'll get amazingly light, airy snickerdoodles. If you also use more vanilla extract, you get amazingly light, airy, vanilla-y snickerdoodles. Make sure to cook on the low end of the range of times she gives -- 7 or 8 minutes instead of 8-10. If you make them big, go for 8 minutes or they'll be a little raw in the center and you'll have to eat a little bit of cookie dough at the center of each cookie.
I know how you hate eating cookie dough.
You can also do things like using vanilla sugar as part of the sugar, and it helps a bit. But trust me on the baking powder thing, it's amazing. Don't bother using vanilla sugar for the cinnamon-sugar on the outside of the cookie, you can't taste it.
Unrelatedly, if you're making chow mein noodle haystacks, don't bother with seriously good quality chocolate. It just doesn't work with the chow mein noodles. You're way better off using cheap chocolate and/or hideous artificial butterscotch, both of which come out great. Live and learn!
Happy cookie-making!
My wife has shown me up by making an *amazing* lemon meringue pie yesterday, which is much harder. Still, I will share my snickerdoodle-making prowess, for I accidentally discovered an amazing snickerdoodle secret -- then made more batches to test it.
Start with Mrs Sigg's snickerdoodle recipe, which is perfectly good in its own right. But use 3 tsp of baking *powder* and one of cream of tartar instead of the recommended baking *soda* and cream of tartar. You'll get amazingly light, airy snickerdoodles. If you also use more vanilla extract, you get amazingly light, airy, vanilla-y snickerdoodles. Make sure to cook on the low end of the range of times she gives -- 7 or 8 minutes instead of 8-10. If you make them big, go for 8 minutes or they'll be a little raw in the center and you'll have to eat a little bit of cookie dough at the center of each cookie.
I know how you hate eating cookie dough.
You can also do things like using vanilla sugar as part of the sugar, and it helps a bit. But trust me on the baking powder thing, it's amazing. Don't bother using vanilla sugar for the cinnamon-sugar on the outside of the cookie, you can't taste it.
Unrelatedly, if you're making chow mein noodle haystacks, don't bother with seriously good quality chocolate. It just doesn't work with the chow mein noodles. You're way better off using cheap chocolate and/or hideous artificial butterscotch, both of which come out great. Live and learn!
Happy cookie-making!
