Buuuut, as I was freaking out because I had to be at the dress rehearsal/sound check for a song that I wrote AS A JOKE that my boss was all like "oh yeah, you're gonna be singing this in front of 200 people in two days so start practicing" on THURSDAY NIGHT and I was totes freaking out because I had like 2 hours to do my laundry, eat, practice the song AND bake something for ya'll, The Mother was like,
"Why not make sugar cookies? And then you can put Nutella in between them like a reverse Oreo!"
Aw man, the woman's a genius. She is definitely my mom.
Recipe from The Joy of Cooking, makes approx 48 cookies (I only made 24 because I was in a rush).
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (or 3/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg. Or maybe 1/4 tsp. Who even has freshly grated nutmeg anyway?)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
More sugar for dipping (you'll see)
Nutella (optional)
WARNING WARNING WARNING: I wrote the recipe out from memory because I don't have the book here at Felder's house. I think think think it's right.
1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together in a medium-ish bowl. (If you only have one big bowl and a couple medium bowls - like me - use a medium bowl for this part. You're gonna mix a bunch of other ingredients in the big bowl unless you want some hella spillage.)
Isn't that pretty?
2. Flour EVERYWHERE. (Also, preheat oven to 375 degrees F.)
3. Mix the 1 cup sugar & vegetable oil in the big bowl.
It will look like those lemon ice drinks you get at Six Flags that cost approximately $10/oz.
Only kind of grosser.
4. Throw in the eggs & vanilla. Do it one ingredient at a time and mix well after each. Note: My cookies were, like, uncomfortably vanilla-y. SO maybe only use, like, 1/2 tsp of vanilla. Or something.
5. Ewww. It's all orange and goopy.
6. Dump the flour mixture into the goop. (Note: Since I put the flour in the big bowl, I did it the other way around. End note.)
Man, look at the consistency of that shite.
7. Mix it together real good. You can use an electric mixer or do it the old fashioned way and use a spoon-thing. I was lazy and didn't want to get the beater out, so I used the spoon-thing.
Now it looks like real cookie dough. OMG.
8. Form into 1/2" balls.
Hurr hurr hurr balls. [I am so mature.]
Please excuse the awful coloring of the above picture and also ignore the fact that my hand looks like an alien-monkey's paw. Thank you.
9. Roll your cookie-balls in sugar and put them on the cookie sheet.
And to our left, you'll notice this lovely view of my thumb.
You can a) grease the cookie sheet or b) cover it in tinfoil for easy cleanup. (Guess which one I went with.)
10. Here's where the experimentation occurs: If you want adorable little cookie-balls, stop here. Bake your cookies in the oven for 12 min and let em cool and voila! Hella crunchy cookies you can dip in Nutella (or not). Also, they are so cute.
11. If you want to do the reverse-Oreo thing, like The Mother suggested, smoosh your cookiedough-balls flat.
These things are super weird, they don't really change shape in Mr. Oven. Cook for 11 min or so - they cook faster when they are flattened.
12. Wait for them to cool, then take 2 and spread Nutella on the bottoms of them and stick them together. (This isn't rocket science, people.)
13. If you want to be REALLY crazy, try this: Take a cookie dough ball and make a hole in it with a toothpick.
14. Fill the hole with Nutella.
15. Pinch the hole closed and roll the cookie in sugar. Bake normally (make sure the closed hole is facing down).
(One has sugar and the other does not, because that is how experiments are done.)
16. Nutella-surprise cookie balls yum!
(Kitteh agrees.)
(Kitteh is adorable.)
ALSO - McK has issued a baking challenge as follows: "YOU HAVE TO MAKE BLUEBERRY MUFFINS. I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE MAKE ONE BEFORE YOU HAVE TO MAKE ONE DO EET DO EET NAOW!
CHOPPA"
Obvs, I have no choice. It is on.
See you next week!
<3,
TWC
