One of the great joys of having children is reading childrens’ books.  When we found out I was pregnant with Graham, we each bought our favorite from our childhood to start our baby’s collection.  Randy bought Where the Wild Things Are and I bought Madeline.  Having two boys, we have read the former much more often than the latter.

In addition to all the ones I know and love from my childhood, we have been introduced to so many new classics.  There is Knuffle Bunny (by the same author as Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! – another favorite), How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight, Too Many Toys, and so many others.  Some of them are pure sweetness, others make me laugh.  One in particular, Bad Kitty, is hilarious.  A cat-owning family runs out of cat food and using the alphabet, describes all the healthy food that they bought for the kitty (asparagus, beets, cauliflower, dill).  Then, again using the alphabet, it goes through all the terrible things the cat does in anger (ate my homework, bit Grandma, clawed the curtains, devoured my new book).  Lo and behold, the family buys the right kind of food (an assortment of anchovies, buffalo burrito, chicken cheesecake, a donkey named Dave), and Bad Kitty does all kind of nice things (apologized to Grandma, bought me new toys, cleaned her cat box, drove me to school).  It is well illustrated and really funny.

We also have Poor Puppy by the same author.  All Poor Puppy wants to do is play with Bad Kitty who won’t have anything to do with him, so he dreams of around the world adventures and games he will someday play with his feline pal (quoits in Qatar for example).  Throughout the book the phrase “poor puppy” is repeated many time.  Poor poor poor puppy.

Why on Earth am I talking about this book and showing your photos of Snickerdoodles and the cookie jar from my childhood?  Randy has been in a “poor Randy” phase for the past couple of days.  This happens sometimes when I am really busy with cooking.  Just this past weekend, I catered two parties and taught two brunch classes.  In 48 hours.  Poor Randy says things like, “You cook for all these other people, why not for me?” or – my favorite – “Why are there no cookies in the cookie jar?  You used to always have cookies in the cookie jar.”  Poor Randy.  Poor poor poor Randy.

So in between the loading and unloading of my car, the set-up and take down of two parties, and the clean-up and destruction of my kitchen, I made these cookies.  Snickerdoodles were always a favorite in my house growing up.  I’m not sure how something that looks so unassuming can taste so good but they do.  My sister-in-law gave us some last weekend and they were perfect.  Soft, cakey, not too sweet, and lots of cinnamon.  She found this gem on All Recipes and this is now my go-to for Snickerdoodles.  I tinkered with the method a bit and with the baking time and temp, but otherwise, I give all credit to Mrs. Sigg – whoever she may be.

One Year Ago: Swiss Chard Tart with Goat Cheese, Currants, and Pine Nuts
Two Years Ago: Spicy Sweet Potatoes with Lime

Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles
Adapted from All Recipes
Makes about 48

I didn’t feel like forming 48 cookies, so I made mine much larger and got about 24.

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup vegetable shortening
1½ cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2¾ cups flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375ºF.

Cream together the butter, shortening, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Beat the eggs in one at a time, scraping down the bowl as necessary.  Add the vanilla and beat one minute.  Add the flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt and mix until combined well.

Mix the two tablespoons of sugar with the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.  Using a tablespoon (or a soup spoon) scrape out bits of dough and roll into balls.  Roll the balls in the sugar mixture and place on a baking sheet at least 2 inches apart.

Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard.  Remove immediately from baking sheets and cool on a rack.

I have a wonderful friend and neighbor whose name is Julie.  Her house is almost exactly the same as mine, just everything is flip flopped.  (They were built by the same person.)  She is a foodie extraordinaire.  She is totally up on all the new restaurants in our city and beyond.  She does incredible amounts of research when she travels and is the type of person who will go way out of her way to find the perfect baguette in Paris.  (I am the same way.)  Julie is an enthusiastic and tremendous cook.  Our kitchens complement each other well.  It seems that whatever I don’t have, she does and vice versa.  Our texts to each other are not, “Can I borrow a cup of sugar?” but “Do you have an extra mini muffin pan?” or “What size pastry tips do you have?”

On top of all that fun stuff, Julie is a very kind and generous person.  She is incredibly quick to offer her help whether it is with cooking classes, catering, or just getting Graham off the bus now and then.  I deeply deeply appreciate her.  A few months ago, she borrowed my Baked cookbook and found a lot of inspiration there.  As a thank you to her for help with a recent party, I bought her the new one, Baked Explorations.  Very soon after, she made these malted cookies.  She brought a few over for us to try one morning.  I left them on the counter, went about my day, and came home only to find that my husband had eaten them.  All of them.  And then he had the nerve to rave about them.  They have been on my mind ever since.

I have a good relationship with the flavor of malt.  When I was a kid my mom would sometimes make us a chocolate malted in the blender.  I loved them.  To this day, the smell that comes from my blender, even if I am puréeing soup, reminds me of those malteds.  (Side note: What is that smell and why does the same smell come from every blender?)  One of my very favorite candies, the one I cannot resist, is the candy coated chocolate malt balls that the Easter bunny brings.

So, you would think I would have made these Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies the very next day.  But theses are roll-out-and-cut cookies which are not my favorite.  Just the added fuss of pulling out the rolling pin, flouring the board, refrigerating the dough can feel like too much in my already busy kitchen.  I am happy to tell you that this dough is very well behaved and the cookies are super easy to make.  The dough is quite sticky, even after a good rest in the refrigerator, but with enough flour I was able to shape these easily.  Much more so than Christmas cookies.

One Year Ago:  Pizza Bianca
Two Years Ago:  Tropical Gazpacho

Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies
Baked Explorations
Makes about 30 sandwich cookies

For the cookies
4 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup malt powder
2 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the vanilla filling
5 ounces vegetable shortening, at room temperature
4 tbsp. (½ stick) unsalted butter, cut into small chunks, at room temperature
3¼ cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted
½ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. light rum

Make the cookies
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, malt, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  Set aside.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy.  Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at at time, beating until each is incorporated.  Add the sour cream and vanilla and beat until just incorporated.  Add half of the dry ingredients all at once and beat for 15 seconds.  Again scrape down the bowl, then add the remaining dry ingredients and beat until just incorporated.  The mixture should come together almost in a ball.

Loosely shape the dough into two balls, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF.  Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Divide each dough ball in half, to make four portions.  Place on portion on a lightly flour-dusted work surface and return the other three to the refrigerator.

Roll out the dough so that it is ¼-inch thick.  The dough will be sticky, so you may have to flip and lightly flour it a few times while you work.  Use a 2-inch round cookie cutter to create the sandwich tops and bottoms, and transfer them to the prepared baking sheets, leaving about 1 inch of space around each cookie.  Extra dough scraps can be refrigerated and rerolled once more, if desired.

Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are just slightly browned.  Place the baking sheets on wire racks to cool for 5 minutes.  use a spatula to transfer the cookies to the racks to cool completely.  While the cookies cool, prepare the filling.

Make the vanilla filling
In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the shortening and butter until lump free and smooth.  Add the sugar in three parts, mixing each part until just combined.  Add the salt, vanilla, and rum and beat again for 10 seconds.  The filling should be thick but spreadable (like the inside of an Oreo).  If it is too thick, add a drop or two of water as needed.  Keep adding water to reach desired consistency, but do not add too much or the filling will be too thin.

Alternatively, if the mixture is too thin, add a few tablespoons of confectioners sugar.

Assemble the Malted Milk Sandwich Cookies
Use a pastry bag or a small spoon to apply about 2 tablespoons of filling to the flat side of a cookie.  Place another cookie, flat side down, on top.  Press down slightly so that the filling spreads to the edges of the cookie.  Repeat until all the sandwich cookies are made.  Let them set up for about 15 minutes before serving.  Store the cookies at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Remember those Danish butter cookies?  The kind that come in the blue tin?  I LOVED those cookies as a kid.  We used to get them every year around the holidays and we would slowly make our way through them.  I liked the round ones with the grooves but the rectangular shaped ones with the sugar were my favorite.

The only time I ever see those cookies these days is when we go to cut down our Christmas tree.  We have gone to several different farms over the years and all of them seem to have bad coffee, overly sweet hot cider, and tins of those cookies.  My kids go nuts over them and even though my palate is much more sophisticated than it once was, I still like those buttery cookies.

Making these Simple Sweet Diamants was an exercise in K.I.S.S.  I trust you are familiar with this term.  Keep It Simple Stupid.  Or Keep It Simple Silly since, in our house, stupid is a bad word.  Anyway.  I feel like I’ve been making a lot of aggressively flavored treats recently.  Most of the time, I would pick a cookie laden with stuff over a simple one.  I had the Compost Cookie at Momofuku’s Milk Bar a couple of years ago and OMG was it good.  This simple butter cookie is about the opposite of that one.  But as we all know, sometimes simple is best.

One Year Ago: Chickpea, Chard, and Couscous Soup
Two Years Ago: Orange Pound Cake

Simply Sweet Diamants
Baking for All Occasions
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

My only quibble with this recipe was the yield.  I was supposed to get 5 dozen but looking at the quantity of ingredients, I didn’t see how that was possible.  I doubled the recipe and got 5 dozen.

6 ounces (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, soft
½ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp. vanilla extract
1¾ cups all purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup pearl or sanding sugar
1 large egg white, lightly beaten

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter, granulated sugar, and vanilla on the lowest speed until creamy and well blended, 1 to 2 minutes.  Maintaining the same speed, add the flour and salt and mix just until combined.

Divide the dough into thirds.  On a clean work surface, roll each piece into a log 1¼ inches in diameter.  (DT: This dough is extremely crumbly so I found it impossible to roll it out that much.  Furthermore, I had to shape it more into a cube rather than a roll to keep it from cracking.)  Wrap the logs separately in plastic wrap and chill until firm, about 2 hours or up to 2 weeks.  For longer storage, overwrap with aluminum foil, label the contents and date, and freeze for up to 1 month.  Thaw in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325ºF.  Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper, so you can get a second pan ready while the first one is baking.

Remove the logs from the refrigerator.  Spread the pearl sugar in a large rectangular pan.  One at a time, brush each log with the egg white, and then roll in the pearl sugar to coat evenly.  Press lightly so the sugar sticks to the dough.  Using a sharp knife, cut 1 dough log into slices 1½-inch thick.  Place the slices on a prepared baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart.

Bake the cookies just until they are ivory colored on top and lightly golden on the bottom, about 12 minutes.  Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely.  Repeat with the remaining logs.

Stack the cooled cookies in an airtight container and store at room temperature for up to 10 days.