Skip to main content

Baking with Samuel

Tonight, Tyrone took Charlotte to run errands, so that left me and Samuel to spend time together.  First we had to clean the kitchen and pick up toys, then it was time to make cookies.

Samuel is Ready!

Samuel loves cookies and watching me work in the kitchen, so tonight I combined the two to make Snickerdoodles.  I haven't had very good luck making GF Snickerdoodles, they always seemed to run.  One time I improvised and made them in muffin tins, they kinda looked like reverse volcanos.  Thanks to the yummy ones my friend Megan made, I thought I'd give them one more try.

I used this recipe from Betty Crocker, Snickerdoodles, I just modified it with Brown Rice Flour and Xanthan Gum.  I think the Xanthan Gum was key,  I'd been out for a while and finally had some, what a difference.

Snickerdoodle Recipe

1 Cup Butter
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
Cream Together
2 Eggs






















Creamed and ready for flour

I like to use Featherlight which is 1 part brown rice flour, 1 part tapioca flour, and 1 part cornstarch, but I didn't have any tapioca.

1/2 cup Cornstarch
2 1/2 cups Brown Rice Flour
2 tsps Cream of Tartar
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Xanthan Gum

All Mixed Up
Flour











After the dough was all mixed up, I went looking for more sugar to make the Cinnamon/Sugar mix to roll the cookies in.  I opened up the pantry and there was no sugar.  This was shocking, Tyrone always seems to buy sugar, even when we don't need it.

Time to improvise:  brown sugar and cinnamon.

Cookie rolled in Brown Sugar/Cinnamon
Whenever I try a new recipe, I always make tester cookies.  Three cookies just to make sure the dough is right and that the cookies don't run.  My other trick is to always use parchment paper, then I don't have to wash the cookie sheet.

Tester Cookies
The other advantage of tester cookies is eating them while the rest of the cookies bake.

Samuel watching the cookies bake.
While the cookies baked Mommy and Samuel took some self portraits.



After baking the tester cookies for 7 minutes at 400 degrees, out they came and they were perfect!











Now it was Samuel's turn to put the cookies on the tray.



After pre-rolling some cookies for Samuel, I decided to roll out the rest and have them ready to pop on the sheet.

Cookies waiting
One thing I like to do is count the cookies.  This started when my dad and I baked.  So this recipe claimed to make 4 dozen, we got 5 dozen.











Samuel loved the finished product!

Tasting
Cookie Boy
 After the 2nd sheet of cookies, Samuel got bored with helping and just wanted to eat cookies!  I'm looking forward to more cookie adventures with Samuel and Charlotte.

PS Thanks to Megan for reminding me to buy xanthan gum and for Rosemary for posting about baking with her baby girl.

Comments

  1. MichelleOctober 22, 2011 at 2:45 AM

    I love that you took pictures of the baking process (and bakers). And glad the cookies taste as good as they look :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Annemarie HuberOctober 26, 2011 at 12:01 PM

    I loved the photos. And hey, how come I didn't get any cookies?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Quest Continues

Today I finally had the right ingredients and enough energy to make Macaroni and Cheese.  After my last my post I started looking for a recipe like my grandmother's.  I knew the basic ingredients she used:  milk, cheese, noodles, and an egg.  So I passed over any recipe that didn't use an egg. After finding quite a few I settled on The Pioneer Women Cooks recipe.   Macaroni and Cheese I followed the recipe exactly and it looked like my grandmas... I even used the same baking dish.  However, it did not taste like Grandma's.  I had baked it for 20 minutes and it just wasn't right so back in the oven it went for another 20.  This time it was more crunchy but still not perfect.  It was too cheesy and the noodles near the edges weren't crunchy and brown.  The egg did blend well but next time I'll use way less cheese.  I know my grandma used Tillamook, which is the best cheese ever, so that wasn't the problem. So now the hunt begins...
3 comments
Read more

Velveeta

I made macaroni and cheese for dinner, again.  This time I took my Aunt's advice and tried Velveeta. Did anyone else eat this as a child?  I have lots of childhood memories around Velveeta.  That is until my mom decided that any cheese that didn't need to be refrigerated was probably really unhealthy.  Up until then it was used in grilled cheese and macaroni and cheese.  Mom let us keep the cool cardboard boxes it came in.  There were used for storing small stuff and other craft project. Tonight I tried the easy recipe on the Velveeta box.  Once I opened up the cheese I thought what am I doing this can't be healthy. It's cheese Product! Once the noodles were cooked and rinsed I added the "cheese."  It did melt quite nicely and didn't have any grease floating at the top.  However, it also didn't have any flavor.  I added more pepper but it still wasn't right. Did I mention it looked like glue? So I put half in the oven to...
3 comments
Read more

Snow Day?

Everyone is talking about snow.  When will it start?  How much will we get?  When will it melt?  Is it spring yet? As I write this it isn't snowing yet, but there are remains of Saturday's snow on the lawn across the street from my treehouse.  The roofs are also partially covered.  I keep hearing that we are getting 3 inches starting at 4pm and ending sometime tomorrow.  All this snow talk has made me remember some of my favorite snow days. January 1985 I'm five years old and I have a new baby sister.  There is lots of snow on our street and in our yard.  Our old house had this amazing yard, it was huge.  There was a greenhouse, large garden, fruit trees, volleyball/badminton court, sandbox, and a huge deck. I remember going out side with my dad and his old sled, the real kind with runners.  He would make the runners slippery by rubbing them with a candle.  We would walk up the little hill by our house and sled down. ...
1 comment
Read more