Cinnamon Pastry Cookies

Another quick SIMPLE recipe! If you love cinnamon---you'll love this!

Many people make pies for the holidays.  Have left over pie crust?  Then make up this quick cookie to please the kids!  It will tide them over and prevent them from asking when they can eat the pies!  (Just in case you do not make pies, nor have any pie crust, I show you how it is done--EASY!)

Cinnamon Pastry Cookies & other yummies!

You will need:
1 cup flour
1/3 cup shortening
2 T. prepared sugar and cinnamon mixture (amounts to your taste--some of us like more cinnamon!)

For Glaze:
Powered sugar
1 t. cinnamon
approximately 1 T milk

 

Add Cinnamon and sugar mixture to the flour, then use a pastry cutter to cut in the shortening into the flour. Cut  the shortening until it comes to a crumbly mixture:

Then add just a bit of water, about a 1/2 teaspoon at a time, stirring all the while, until the shortening mixture sticks together.  You don't want it too sticky.  Just add water until you can make a ball in your hands that sticks together.  Then roll it out on a floured board or pastry mat to a thickness of about 1/4 inch. Cut it with a knife into long strips about 3/4 inch wide.  Then cut each long strip in approximately 4-5 inch sections.  Place these on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for a few minutes (8-10)  until set and just golden on the edges. 350 degree oven.  Watch carefully and Do Not over cook as they will be hard.

While cookies are cooling, make your glaze. In a small bowl or cup, start with about 1/2 cup powdered sugar.  Add the cinnamon.  Then start adding milk by 1/2 teaspoon fulls a little at a time, like you did with the water for the crust, until you have a creamy mixture that can be drizzled over the cookies. Too much milk and the glaze will be thin and "watery". Plate them up, call the kids, and I guarantee you they will be gone in no time!

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Save time--Adjust a Recipe!

While surfing Pinterest the other day, I found a recipe that I can't wait to try! It originally appeared on bonappetit.com a recipe by Julie Hasson.  If you want the original recipe you can find it here.
Anyway, I am all for shortcuts and I will cook my own version of this basic Whoopie Pie dressed up for Christmas!  (Anything to save time during the holidays.)  Just stop by the store on your way home and get a devils food cake mix and a can of vanilla frosting. (and peppermint candy, if you don't have any already for the holidays.) You most probably have everything else in your home cupboards.....

picture by P. Mittongtare for bonappetit.com

Whoopie Pies, Christmas Style

1 egg
1/2 c shortening
1/2 t. peppermint extract
Cream together first three ingredients

Devils Food cake mix- 1 box
2T milk*
Add devils food mix to the creamed mixture and add the milk to the crumbly mixture.
*If you need a better consistency add another tablespoon of milk. chill in the refrigerator while you make supper. When ready, roll a tablespoon of batter into a circle with your hands and put onto a non-stick pan (or greased pan.) Flatten them out just a bit with a moisten glass or back of a spoon.  Bake for 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Turn out onto cooling racks when done.


Filling:

1 can prepared vanilla frosting
red food coloring
optional: peppermint flavoring
crushed peppermint candy or other sprinkles if you prefer

Finishing:
Blend the peppermint flavoring and a couple of drops food coloring to make the frosting pink.  Make a sandwich by filling two cookies with the frosting mixture.  When finished roll the edges in the crushed candy and voila!  You have an easy cookie for guests!

Join us tomorrow for a quick way to make gift tags! 

Vintage Recipe

When I was in high school, in the sixties, (WOW, am I that old?) I would often go to the cafeteria or the student lunch counter and buy flying saucers!  What are those, you say?  They are incredibly large oatmeal spice cookies--about five inches in diameter--thus the name! I loved them, and my mom, who collects recipes, happened to see the recipe, shared by the high school,  in the local newspaper. Of course she clipped it and I have had this recipe for years and years and years--did I say that I am old now???  hee hee!  Here's the 'vintage' recipe:

Flying Saucers

1/2 c.  shortening

   1 c.  sugar

   1      egg, slightly beaten

1/4 c.  honey

2-3 T. milk

1/4 c.  raisins

1  1/2 c. oatmeal (old fashioned)

1 3/4 c. flour

3/4 t. baking soda

1/2 t. allspice
1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt

Wash and soak raisins in hot water, and set aside to drain well.
Cream shortening and sugar until light.  Add egg, honey and milk and continue to cream.  Combine oatmeal and reserved raisins to the mixture. 

Sift together all dry ingredients;  then add to the mixture. Mix well until well blended.  Dip with No. 16 scoop (or 1/4 c.) onto well greased cookie sheet.  Make sure you leave plenty of room around the mounds for flattening.  With a glass dipped in water, flatten slightly.  Bake at 300 degrees 10-15 minutes.  Cool to set. 

Makes 12 saucers (approx. 4 1/2" in diameter) 

Note: These will be soft when you take them from the oven.  This is what makes them so good, because the are a soft cookie--DO NOT over cook!  I also increase the spices just a little bit, but I like them that way.

Work, spelling and cookies . . .

Paddy and Owen scrambled up the back steps and slammed the screen door behind them.

"Grandma, we're gonna work in the fields today, are ya coming? Mom wants to know."

Putting the last dish in the cupboard and hanging up the new tea towel, Abby responded, "Well, how are you boys today, did you get your studies done for the morning?"

"Yep! and we're all ready to plant those new shrubs. Dad got out early this morning and dug all the holes in the new rows, now we have to set them in! Grandma, did you make some more snickerdoodles? It smells like snickerdoodles. Can we have one?"

"I made them this morning, just for you! Help yourself, you know where the cookie jar is. I hope you ate your lunch, but I guess you probably did, since you are ready to work! Owen, can you spell 'cookie', for grandma? I know you've been working on your spelling words. And Padraic, you can spell 'snickerdoodle'. "

C-O-O-K-I-E recipe:

http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes.aspx/snickerdoodles/7ffc92a9-d847-4869-9ecb-99de3b751b14

"Enjoy! I used to always make these for your mom and her siblings when they were growing up, and now I make them for you. When your grandpa and I were young and broke, I would use all shortening and no butter or which ever I had, cuz all the ingredients were in the cupboard as basics. We grew to love them!!!!"