Chewy Sugar Cookies

I don't really have time to blog about these cookies except to say that I love them. I just wanted to post this since it's been in my edit box for 3 months. So. Busy. It is America's Test Kitchen recipe.

The only thing negative I have to say is that they are oily. I leave out some but I need to try and leave out more and see if they work. 

I do use a whisk to make them, just like it says, no beaters.  


Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar , plus 1/3 cup for rolling
• 2 ounces cream cheese , cut into 8 pieces
• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter , melted and still warm
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 large egg
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

* 1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in medium bowl. Set aside.
* 2. Place 1½ cups sugar and cream cheese in large bowl. Place remaining 1/3 cup sugar in shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside. Pour warm butter over sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later). Whisk in oil until incorporated. Add egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth. Add flour mixture and mix with rubber spatula until soft homogeneous dough forms.
* 3. Divide dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 tablespoons each (or use #40 portion scoop). Using hands, roll dough into balls. Working in batches, roll balls in reserved sugar to coat and evenly space on prepared baking sheet, 12 dough balls per sheet. Using bottom of drinking glass, flatten dough balls until 2 inches in diameter. Sprinkle tops evenly with 4 teaspoons of sugar remaining in shallow dish (2 teaspoons per tray), discarding any remaining sugar.
* 4. Bake, 1 tray at a time, until edges are set and just beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating tray after 7 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets 5 minutes. Using wide metal spatula, transfer cookies to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Rockin'

This is a simple time taker-upper for kids to do.  Find a rock.  Smooth is better.  Take your crayons to it and color very very hard to really coat the rock.  Heat oven to 350 deg.  place rocks on old pan and place in oven, keep watch on them and remove when the crayon has melted and is wet/shiny.  The bigger the rock the longer it takes.   I'm not sure what to do with them when they are done, paper weight or whatnot but it occupies the kiddo's for a bit anyway. 

Grape Salad

I realize this picture is not very good but I wanted to share this recipe with you.

It comes from my husbands family (Thanks B for the recipe) and my daughter fell in love with it. So when we had to take a pot luck item recently and I had a bag of grapes that we needed to use it fit the bill. It is easy enough that my daughter made it herself. We left out a little sugar to make it not as sweet. We also only had red grapes on hand.

Grape Salad

2 lbs green grapes
2 lbs red grapes
8 oz sour cream
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

topping

1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Remove grapes from vine and wash. beat sour cream, softened cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Add grapes and fold together. Mix brown sugar and walnuts and sprinkle over the top of the grapes. Refrigerate a few hours or overnight.

Dragons

Summer means the kids crafting increases.  Ages 11 and 7 were playing some game and decided they needed to make some stuffy dragons to go along with it.  So they found a picture, traced it on felt and cut and sewed and painted and Voila!

I'm still here

Just a quick note to let you know I'm still alive.  Blogger is just at the bottom of my pile and my pile feels so big right now.   I don't know when I'll get back, I'm not tech-fast it takes me a while to get pictures transferred to the computer etc.   I hope soon though.  This week is PTA Convention followed by a concert at The Tabernacle with my women's choir We Also Sing as part of a choir festival on Temple Square.  Our part is on Friday at 6:00 if anyone cares to mosey over.   Cross your fingers for me that I'm only experiencing heightened allergies and not catching my son's cold so I can still sing.