It’s snowing and looks like it’s going to stay on the ground for Christmas! My dogs are way more excited than I am, but it’s not going to stop me from going outside to play with them today. While outside I decided to take a few snaps for you guys. Rogue is modelling her thunder vest which is suppose to help with her anxiety but it doesn’t seem to help, so we have been using it as a makeshift sweater on the milder winter days.
In other news, today is Tipsy Eve (aka Tibb’s Eve) and I have a hunch you are unfamiliar with it. To clear the matter up, Tipsy Eve is holiday tradition that is celebrated on the 23rd (and sometimes continues to the 24th of December) and yes it involves getting tipsy. My boyfriend who is from Newfoundland thinks I’m crazy because his family does not celebrate it however I’m trying hard to make this a thing we do. You can read a little about the history of Tipsy Eve on The Southern Gazette. I just love the idea of people walking from one person’s house to another to share their food and drink. I am not ready to invite myself over to my neighbours (unless it’s the ones upstairs) however it’s a cool tradition and I will definitely drink to that!
My blog has been very non-holiday-ish and I wanted to make up for it a little. Today I woke up early and did a little holiday baking – snickerdoodles. AJ and I had the age old (it seems) conversation about what snacks he would eat out of what I bought for our small but lovely Christmas Eve gathering. Aj of course is down to veggies and dip (because he isn’t a fan of most aged cheeses such as the ones present on my cheese board I have planned) and some sort of baked good I planned on making this morning. I settled on snickerdoodles, as they were plain, and I thought he would like them as well as they are really a holiday staple. This recipe is amazing, the cookies are crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside, dusted with cinnamon sugar they are perfect by themselves and delicious I think, with the wine we will be having. To dress them up I made half into thumbprint cookies which I filled with dark chocolate ganache. Zing – that’s what I call compromise! Makes about 30 cookies.
Snickerdoodles Two Ways
adapted from Juju Bee’s recipe submitted to food.com
- 1 cup of salted butter
- 1 1/2 cups of white sugar
- 2 large free-run organic eggs
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 1+1/2 baking powder
- 1+1/2 tsp baking soda
- 3 tbs sugar
- 3 tsp cinnamon
dark chocolate ganache (double amounts if you want to make it for all 30 cookies)
- 2/3 of a cup of dark chocolate chips/discs
- 1-2 tbs of heavy cream or whole fat milk
Method
Preheat oven to 350F.
Bring butter to room temperature and cream together with white sugar in a large bowl.
Beat in one egg at a time.
In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add dry ingredients to the butter mixture and mix well. The dough will be crumbly – almost like pie dough.
Place dough in the refrigerator withe two prepared cookie sheets and chill for about 15 minutes while the oven comes to temperature.
While the dough is chilling find a small bowl to mix the cinnamon and sugar together. It seems like a great deal of cinnamon but it gives it such a nice flavour and colour to the cookies.
Once the dough has been chilled, use a teaspoon to mound enough dough together with your hand and form a ball. Try not to handle the dough too much or the butter will melt. Roll each dough ball into the cinnamon sugar and space with enough room to spread out.
Leave the dough as a ball, do not flatten , the oven will do that and give the cookies their nice craggy look. Bake cookies for 10 minutes, they will look lightly browned on the bottom and puffy. Once baked, remove each cookie from the pan immediately with a spatula and place on a wire rack.
If you are going to make the chocolate version you want to compress the middle while the cookies are still warm on the rack. I used the back of my coffee scoop because it seemed to be the perfect size but the end of the shot glass would work just as well.
If you are filling them with chocolate make the ganache by heating the chocolate with the cream/milk in the microwave for about 30 seconds and stirring until completely combined. Check that the chocolate doesn’t burn so you may have to do this in 15 second intervals. You may also heat up the milk and pour over the chips and stir if you are worried.
Spoon ganache into each snickerdoodle vessel and make sure to Let the cookies cool completely before handling.
Enjoy with a glass of red wine or a hot toddy! Happy Holidays everyone!
V-Spot 