Snickerdoodles

The Snickerdoodles are cinnamon biscuits really soft and delicious. If you do some research you'll find different ways to prepare them, flat or round (the ones I prepared). That depends on your taste.

As you can see below, the preparation is very easy and quick. I've prepared the original version but you can add them a bit of honey, chocolate, orange, etc. Other day I'll post the chocolate version, you'll have to wait a little bit!!!

So, here it goes, photo and recipe.

Ingredients (around 75 biscuits):

• 280 grams all purpose Flour
• 125 grams Batter, room temperature
• 80 grams Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 teaspoons Baking Powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Nutmeg (optional)
• 1 pinch Salt

Coating:

• 4 teaspoons Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Cinnamon

Preparation:

1. In one bowl add the flour, salt and nutmeg and whisk them together. Reserve.
2. In a different bowl beat the butterand sugar until you have a creamy mixture.
3. Add the vanilla extract and the egg and beat well.
4. Add the flour mixture slowly and beat until you have a smooth dough. You will need to knead the dough by hand when all the flour mixture is added. Knead until the dough is soft and separates from the sides of the bowl perfectly.
5. Pre heat the oven to 200º C.
6. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
7. For the coating: In a large shallow bowl mix together the sugar and cinnamon.
8. Take small pieces of dough and form small round balls of around 2,5 centimeters.
9. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place them on the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 centimeters between them.
10. Bake the biscuits for about 10-13 minutes, or until their surface start to be cracked.
11. Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

These biscuits can last about one week if stored in an airtight container, at room temperature, if you don't eat all of them at once.

Shortbread Cookies

Today I will give you the Shortbread Cookies recipe. They are delicious and really easy to prepare.

Ingredients (for around 45 cookies):

• 375 grams of all-purpose Flour
• 250 grams of unsalted Butter at room temperature (I used the salted one and it was really good anyway)
• 90 grams of powdered (confectioners or icing) Sugar
• A pinch of Salt (around 2 grams)

Preparation:

1. Mix in a bowl the flour, the sugar and the salt.
2. Mix the butter, with the electric mixer or by hand until it's smooth and creamy.
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter gradually until it's completely well incorporated.
4. Then, make a ball with the dough and put wrap it in clingfilm. Here there are two ways of do it depending of how you are going to make the biscuits shape.
• If you are using a cookie cutter:
  5. Wrap the dough in the ball shape and chill it for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
  6. Then, using a rolling pin, flattened it until it is 5mm thick.
  7. Using the cookie cutter cut the cookies and place them on the prepared baking sheet, with parchment paper.
• If you are cutting "slices" of the dough with a knife:
  5. Wrap the dough in a cylinder shape and chill it for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
  6. Then unwrap it and cut slices of around 5mm thick.
  7. Take each "cookie" and make the round shape with your fingers if you want as it's going to have one flat side (where it has being resting). Place them on the prepared, with parchment paper, baking sheet.

8. Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
9. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes approximately, or until cookies are lightly browned.
10. Cool on a wire rack.

Decoration:

• Something very simple to make your cookies look more professional in mark a fork en them (you should do this before they are cold, as soon as you can after taking them from the oven).
• You also can do Chocolate Dipped Shortbreads. To do that, place finely chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place it over a saucepan of simmering eater. Once the chocolate is melted, remove from the heat and stir with a wooden spoon until it has completely melted and is smooth and glossy. Taking one cookie at a time, dip one end of each cookie in the melted chocolate and place it on a parchment lined baking sheet.  Then leave it to cool in the fridge until the chocolate has hardened.
• Before baking them, make a hollow in the middle of the cookie and add a bit of strawberry jam, for example. Then bake as explained above.

As you can see, apart from the usual shortbread I've prepared some chocolate cookies as well.

OBSERVATIONS:
I recommend you to put the biscuits, once baked and cold, in some kitchen paper so they are not that greasy when eating them.