Homemade Cookies

Who doesn't love a homemade cookie over a store bought one? Not to many people I am guessing. With the kids home from school, we have a tendency to go through a few more cookies. I have let my older kids go to town in the kitchen with my stand mixer to make their own cookie dough. Some have been good, and some not so good. We do also try every year at our local county fair to enter a few of the better recipes.



Here Matt won third place for his chocolate chip cookies. They were not the best he had ever made, but it was how they turned out that year. We don't use any special recipe for the chocolate chip cookies, we normally just alter a regular recipe.




This year Ali won first place for snickerdoodles , and Matt again took third for his chocolate chip. I make sure to not have them compete in the same flavor categories. Somebody will lose, and somebody will feel bad, so we avoid competing in the same categories.

Here is the recipe I gave her to use:

Snickerdoodles
(from Martha's web site)
2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside. Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.

2. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 20 (1 3/4-inch) balls; roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

3. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.


They are REALLY good. I have been known to eat a few at a sitting before. Be sure to store in an air tight container, or they will get hard.




Now I know this isn't a craft project, but it is a project to do with your kids. Grab your cookbook, dust it off, and find a new cookie you have never tried before. It could be a new family favorite.

Here is the list that my local county fair has for entries:
Chocolate drop
white drop
fruit - nut drop
drop - no bake
oatmeal drop
ginger
peanut butter
biscotti
chocolate chip
chocolate refrigerator
white refrigerator
fruit/nut refrigerator
lemon sugar
sugar - molded
sugar - rolled
snickerdoodles
Russian tea cakes

Try something new, and see if you can enter it at the fair this summer! If you do, take a picture and let us know about it!