Cookie Break

Cookies for Cookie Break
Originally uploaded by watchjennybake.

I will admit to plying my students with goodies, especially on days like today when I needed them to come in for a meeting on a weekend. I made two kinds of cookies for today - Fiesta del Sol Cookies and Kitchen Sink Cookies. Kitchen Sink Cookies are just what they sound like - today they had chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, oats, and coconut, but they could have had nuts, dried fruit, cereal, anything needing used up.

The second cookie is more of a unique flavor combination - cornmeal, lemon, and cinnamon - with the look and feel of a snickerdoodle. The cornmeal makes it a little crunchier. I love this cookie. I found it a few years back in the Enduring Harvests cookbook, which I highly recommend if you are looking for native americanish dishes or some new flavor combinations.

Fiesta del Sol Cookies
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt

Cinnamon-lemon sugar:
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp cinnamon

Cream together sugar and butter, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Mix in remaining ingredients. Blend together well. Cover and chill 2-3 hours or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 F. Shape cookie dough into small balls, about 1/2" in diameter, and roll in the cinnamon-lemon sugar.

Set cookie balls 1" apart on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake 10 minutes or until just honey golden.

Jenny's notes: I might recommend doubling this recipe, but because each cookie is pretty small, it makes more than you might think. Any time a recipe includes zest of a citrus, I like to mix it with the sugar in the recipe before creaming it with the butter. I think it makes the cookie more fragrant.

Categories: Cookies

I have great student workers! Happy 2008!