String Notes

That sounds like the title of a truly awful children’s book, doesn’t it? Nothing horrible though, I promise, though the quantity of cookies I baked today is truly ridiculous. I used all the flour, all the eggs, all the vanilla, and enough butter to keep a whole herd of cows occupied.

Before I forget, though: my contribution to the refrigerator magnet meme:

Don’t worry – I was carefully supervised during this project by an observer outside the kitchen window, sometimes by a whole flock of inspectors.

I followed the usual steps while baking: first, assemble the ingredients.

I have good chocolate, but why exactly do I need three bottles of molasses?

I went with the “baking in parallel” approach, rather than “baking in series”.

I set up four bowls at once, and did each step for all four bowls at a time.

There were gingersnaps, crunchy on the edges and chewy in the middle, and much beloved of Morgan.

Peanut butter, by Nick’s request, and inspiring much begging from the dog.

Pinwheels, one of my favorites.

And of course, decorated sugar cookies, a Christmas staple. Usually, they aren’t decorated with dinosaurs, but that may be an oversight by the rest of the world.

Three of the recipes were standard cookbook fare, but here’s the pinwheel recipe, copied from one of my mother’s cookbooks onto a now-tattered and butter-spotted slip of yellow paper.

Pinwheels
1/2 c butter, softened
3/4 c sugar
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

The usual cookie thing: cream butter and sugar; beat in vanilla and egg; gradually add combined dry ingredients.
Here’s the fun part: divide dough in half. Add melted chocolate to half, and mix firmly. Chill.
Divide the cold dough into quarters. Roll out a rectangle of chocolate, and another of vanilla. Stack them, and roll jellyroll-fashion (longways). Slice into rounds.
Bake at 375F for 8-10 minutes.

If you are feeling creative, you can do many sorts of other things with the dough. I’ve done checkerboards, and though I’ve never tried it millefiori seems quite possible.

Warning: the chocolate part is the best cookie dough ever.

It looks like this in progress.