Monthly Archives: October 2009

Birthday Snickerdoodles

snicker_1 snicker_2

I made these snickerdoodles early Sunday morning (Oct 4th) for my Dad’s birthday. He loves Guava Chiffon Pie, macaroons, shoefly pie (I think), and snickerdoodles. He likes coconut and hates chocolate, so I thought I’d try my hand at the easiest recipe out of the bunch. Unfortunately, I cooked these on the broiler rack (~3″ from the top of the stove), so they didn’t cook that evenly. They also seemed a little too buttery for my taste, but it might be because I didn’t incorporate the butter/crisco as well as I should have. When making the balls, I found a whole chunk of butter not even blended into the batter. I chucked it out, but these were still too rich for me. I think I’ll try Smitten Kitchen or Bakerella‘s version next. This recipe was from my boyfriend’s mother. We’ve both had her cookies using this recipe and they taste so much better, I wonder what else went wrong on my end?

Snickerdoodles

  • 1/2 cup Crisco
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 3/4 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 Tablespoons sugar
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Mix Crisco, butter, sugar, and eggs thoroughly.  Sift together dry ingredients and mix in.  Roll into small balls.  Roll balls in mixture of 2 T. sugar and 2 t. cinnamon.  Place on ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes.

Salted Plum Dressing

saltedplumdressing

A local restaurant, Zentan, has a salad with a dressing that I really like. The only problem with this dressing is that it has insane ingredients and weird proportions. You can see the full recipe here, but I tried to quarter it and skip the blender step.

Salted Plum Dressing

  • ¼ c. or 1 tube salted-plum (ume) paste
  • 1/8 c. rice-wine vinegar
  • ¼ tsp mirin
  • ¼ tsp dashi
  • 1/3 tsp to ½ tsp onion oil
  • 1½ tbsp sugar
  • 1/8 tsp. grated ginger
  • dash of sea salt (~1/16th tsp)

Whisk until all ingredients combined. If you want a smoother texture, place in blender and purée until smooth.

Onion Oil

  • 1/3 to ½ cup vegetable oil
  • ½ cup loosely packed chopped leeks, white part only
  • ½ green onion, chopped (1/4 white part, 1/4 green part)
  • ¼ medium onion, chopped

In a medium saucepan set over high heat, combine all the ingredients. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Decrease the heat to medium-high and cook for another 5 minutes, then decrease the heat to medium. Cook the mixture for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions and leeks are crispy and brown. Remove the pan from the heat and strain the oil into a bowl through cheesecloth. Discard the solids. Let the oil cool before transferring it to a jar. Keeps in the fridge for up to 1 month (which is good considering the dressing only calls for a little bit of it)