Cinnamon Crisps

This is a comfort food cookie for a winter’s night with a glass of cold milk or great cup of tea.

Cinnamon CrispsPhoto by Sue Van Slooten

Here’s a great cookie for Christmas, or anytime. And depending on your taste, you can make it several ways: With nuts, without nuts, with cinnamon sugar, or with cinnamon sugar and nuts. It’s all how you feel that day (or if anyone has a nut allergy, just go the cinnamon route). If you’re a cinnamon freak like me, I went with the cinnamon sugar option. This is your basic refrigerator, slice and bake cookie, so is easy to make. You can make up the roll of dough ahead of time, and keep it in your fridge until you’re ready to bake. The origin of this cookie came from one of my older cookbooks, Cookies for Christmas, but as is usual with me, nothing ever stays as written. I have to tweak. Hence, the different “coatings.” Full info on the book is below, to give credit where credit is due.

The key ingredient in this cookie is cinnamon, my favourite spice. I use it year round, in lots of things. Most of the cinnamon sold in supermarkets is cassia, not what is called in English, true cinnamon, or cinnamomun verum [1).  Cassia is much cheaper to produce, hence why the supermarkets all carry it and not the other. However, I got a Christmas present of Saigon cinnamon, complete in it’s own little cinnamon wood box. Now that’s a gift to make this baker happy! Another nice feature? It’s from World Vision’s Christmas catalogue, so my gift giver also gave me a beautiful gift reflecting social consciousness. It’s nice to know people know my tastes! Which brings us back to the cookie, as I had to find something to do with that lovely cinnamon. The cinnamon in question has a nice sweet flavor, not a dry taste like so many others have. Perfect for baking. So, you will want to fire up your oven for some great cookies.

Ingredients:

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. salt

¾ cup butter or margarine

1/3 cup sugar (Please note, when I made these cookies, I left the white sugar out)

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp. vanilla

½ cup finely chopped pecans And/Or

¼ cup cinnamon sugar

Stir together flour, cinnamon, and salt. In a large mixer bowl beat butter or margarine till softened. Add sugar (if using) and brown sugar and beat till fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat well. Cover and chill about 30 minutes or till easy to handle.

Shape into a 12” roll. Roll in nuts and/or cinnamon sugar to coat. Wrap and chill for at least 2 hours or overnight. Cut into ¼ “ slices. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake in a 350 oven for 10 to 12 minutes or till done. Remove and cool.  Makes 48 (although I had less).

What I found with the ¼” thick cookie, was that they were more like shortbread. I would suggest maybe 1/8 “ if you want a crispier cookie, but watch your baking time, they will bake much faster. 

References:

Better Homes and Gardens. “Cookies for Christmas.” Des Moines, Iowa: Better Homes and Gardens Books, Meredith Corporation, 1985.

Notes:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon Wikipedia does a decent job of explaining cinnamon, and a very detailed history of the spice throughout history. Quite interesting.

Oatmeal Raisin Nut Cookies

 Oatmeal Raisin Nut Cookies

By Sue Van Slooten

This is a delicious, slightly chewy, slightly sweet, but oooh sooo yummy oatmeal cookie! The world NEEDS this cookie!

Many of you know that I love oatmeal bread, but what you may not know is I love oatmeal cookies even more. I have tweaked, added, experimented, and generally tuned my recipe, until I’m fairly confident it’s the best Oatmeal Raisin Nut Cookie recipe there is. At a recent picnic, my suspicions were confirmed; comments were in the rave category. All 2 dozen disappeared; there weren’t even any crumbs. These cookies make a large, 3-inch “fat” cookie, nothing chintzy here, but a good healthy dose of cookie heaven. For the picnic, I made a double batch, feel free to do so, but there would have been mutiny if I didn’t make some for the family. Those cookies are long gone, but there have been several hints for “more.” They are also good keepers, if they last that long, and freeze well too, at least, I’m assuming they would, as none have never made it that far. For those of you who are nut allergic, just leave the walnuts out. You will still have a really fantastic cookie.
 

Oatmeal Raisin Nut Cookies.  Photo by Sue Van Slooten

Oatmeal Raisin Nut Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

¼ cup demerara sugar (if you can’t find it, just use dark brown)

½ cup dark brown sugar

½ cup butter, softened

¼ cup shortening

½ tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. baking powder

¼ tsp. salt

1 egg

1 ½ cups quick cooking oats

½ cup white flour

½ cup whole-wheat flour

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped walnuts

Granulated sugar

Water glass

Method: Heat oven to 375 F. Mix all ingredients except oats, flour, raisins, and nuts. Stir in flour, oats, raisins, and nuts. Drop or pat dough into a “patty” at least 2 good-sized tablespoon at a time, about 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. I tend to be generous, and if you want the three-inch monster cookie, you might want to use more. Flatten the dough or patties to a little less that ½” thick with a water glass, the bottom dipped in granulated sugar. This gives the cookies a uniform thickness and some sparkle. Bake until light brown, about 10 minutes. As ovens vary, this may be more or less, just use your own judgment. Remove quickly from cookie sheet and let cool on wire racks. The recipe makes about 2 dozen 2-3 inch cookies.

Important Notes: You can use other kinds of oats as well, the last time (the ones in the photo) I did a 50/50 mix of large flake and rolled. The water glass will start picking up the sugar after it’s been used once or twice on the dough.

You can follow my further adventures at myMother Earth Website, motherearthnews.com.  Or, you can email me at suevanslooten@icloud.com.