Friday, December 09, 2005

Holiday Cookie Exchange #1, second installment

Hi everyone!

Happy Friday and welcome to this week's installment of the Holiday Cookie Exchange. I will update the post throughout the weekend, so feel free to join in any time.

We have one week left in this exchange, next Friday/weekend, and I hope that you all come back to share one more time before the holidays officially take over our lives. Maybe we can all get together for a Valentine exchange...I can just see the hearts, cherubs and kiss shapes now!

Snickerdoodles
I love a simple sugar cookie. Ilva at Lucullian Delights reminded me of this with her wonderful entry below. Here is one of my favorite cookies in that category.

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening (i.e., Crisco)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together the butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until they are set but not too firm. Remove immediately from the cookie sheets and put on cooling racks.

Once done baking, take some photos in some funky lighting (I mean, really, what is the deal with bad lighting in kitchens?):




Please check out these recipes from some fantastic foodie sites:

Ilva at Lucullian Delights bakes Marco's Cookies for her husband (lucky guy)

Michelle at The Accidental Scientist made these Double Chocolate Coconut Cookies (they sound delicious, don't they?) and some Raspberry Linzer Windowpane Cookies

Kristi at Interrupted Wanderlust made something perfect for the holidays: Candy Cane Cookies

Nerissa at Deetsa's Dining Room submitted her 'it wouldn't be Christmas without them' Peanut Butter Balls, check out the pretty colors!

Melissa at the Cooking Diva, has baked her cookies, you can take a look here...she'll get the post up with the recipe soon! Update...here are the recipes!

Vickie, at The Moveable Feast joined in a little late...she had to give her home security a once over...check out her Pinwheels...

10 comments:

Ilva said...

Dawn-Great! And I just tagged you for a meme!

Michelle said...

I completely agree about the lighting! I think my entire house has bad lighting! I love snickerdoodles, they're one of my family's favorites!

Here's the link to my post - thanks again for being such a fabulous host!

http://accidentalscientist.blogspot.com/2005/12/holiday-cookie-exchange-2.html

Kristi said...

Here's my link!
http://interruptedwanderlust.blogspot.com/2005/12/holiday-cookie-exchange-week-2-candy.html

I'm lucky I can use a digital camera, much less get good lighting! LOL. Thanks for organizing this. It's a lot of fun!

Dawn said...

Hi Ilva, Michelle and Kristi! Thanks for joining in this week. At first, I was feeling so rushed and didn't want to make cookies, but in the end, I was really happy. I had a bunch of really cute bundles of cookies. Keep your eye out, ladies, you might see some of these in your mailbox soon! Ilva, I don't know how these will travel, so I will include some orange peels in the package so they stay soft.

Fran said...

These look so good and I think your photos are great. Thanks for the recipe--we love snickerdoodles too.

Deetsa said...

Oooh.. the snickerdoodles... mmmm... I meant to make some of these myself because I was craving the sugar and cinnamon.

I made a boo boo perhaps on the posting of my cookies. I'll post my HCE1 cookies here instead and hope for the best:

http://deetsasdiningroom.blogspot.com/2005/12/it-wouldnt-be-christmas-without-them.html

Dawn said...

Fran, thanks for dropping by! I hope you try the recipe. It's one of the best recipes I've got!

vlb5757 said...

Dawn-I finally got my cookies done for the HCE#2. www.themoveablefeastpcs.blogspot.com

After you read the first parapraph you will know why I am late to this party. All of the cookies look great, and your pictures do look really good with all the cookies stacked and wrapped! Nice job darlin'.

Anonymous said...

All these cookies look and sound GREAT!

Paz

Dawn said...

Hi Paz, thanks! I mean, I can't really take the credit, but they do look good, don't they?

bna, thanks for the tag...Ilva at Lucullian delights also tagged me for this meme and I'll definitely be working on this during the week. I'll also have to stop by and check out your blog some, I don't think I've been over there! You should join in this weekend for the Holiday Cookie Exchange, 3rd installment (final installment for these holidays!)

Sorry I've been out of touch for the last couple of days...threw my son's birthday party on Sunday and then have been sick all day Monday! Eek, not the way I wanted to start my week. Hopefully I'll be awake for more than four hours tomorrow and able to come say hi to everyone!