alice medrich Archives

Snickerdoodles (Alice in Cookiewonderland)

By threejamigos | September 5, 2019 | Comments 0 Comment

It has been 1610 days since I sat down and penned my inaugural post, Jamigos 2.0 to launch 3jamigos. As I reflect on that number all I can think is WHAT TOOK ME SO LONG TO INCLUDE MY FAVORITE COOKIE? I mean, sheesh, of the 100 cookie recipes I have posted, it doesn’t include my all-time favorite non-shortbread cookie (notice how I slipped in that qualifier, shortbread=cookie perfection). Unbelievable, and how did I discover this faux pas?

I was tasked with making cookies for an End of Summer Party for our political action group (sanity saver). I automatically went to my blog and typed in S N I C K E R D O O D L E S in the search box and waited, NOTHING popped up. A quick search of my cookie index revealed, what the heck, no Snickerdoodles.

Are you kidding?

I’ve never posted Snickerdoodles on my blog? Hellooo, time to fix that. I got busy, made a batch for the meeting, snitched a couple to have with an ice-cold glass of milk, and sat down to write this post.

EVERYONE needs a scrumptious recipe for Snickerdoodles. Buttery, sweet and spicy, crispy edges, soft chewy center, finished with cinnamon sugar. The quintessential cookie. My favorite recipe comes from the cookie maven, Alice Medrich. Unlike other recipes I have seen, hers are made with just butter. Yep, no shortening in these bad-boy bites of sweet cinnamon bliss. The recipe is from her small but mighty book, Cookies and Brownies, long out of print but available on the secondary market. The book is worth getting just for this and her Lemon Bar recipe. Well written with easy-to-follow directions, it’s a keeper. My copy is frayed and tattered, well worn from use.

Cream butter and sugar together to smooth but NOT fluffy. Add eggs, beat until blended.

Add flour and stir just until combined. Don’t overmix. The mixing changes the consistency of the cookie. Fluffy butter-sugar mixture gives a cakier cookie, go for smooth and creamy. After adding the flour mixture do not beat the dough too much or you will end up with a tough cookie.

Gather dough into a disc, shape doesn’t matter. Keep the thickness to about an inch. This will make it easier to scoop and form the cookies after chilling.

After chilling the dough, use a 1 tablespoon ice cream scoop (#70) to form balls. Shape the scoops into smooth balls and roll in cinnamon sugar. Use a good quality cinnamon, like Penzey’s . This is a great cookie to make with the kids or grandkids, never met a kid that didn’t like to roll balls of cookie dough in copious amounts of cinnamon sugar all the while licking their fingers.

The one tablespoon scoop yields a cookie about 2 inch in diameter. All well and good, BUT, the smaller you make the cookie the harder it is to end up with a cookie that has crisp edges and a soft center. If that is what you are looking for, try making bigger cookies. Increase your baking time by a couple of minutes.

Bake cookies 8-10 minutes until the edges are golden brown. I like the centers soft, if you like crunchy cookies, bake them a bit longer. How long? Don’t know, I don’t like them that way.

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Snicker Doodles

Course cookies

Cuisine American

Keyword Snickerdoodles

Prep Time 20

Cook Time 10

Equipment

Cookie sheets, lined with parchment paper or greased

Ingredients

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (13.5 ounces)
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ pound unsalted butter, softened (2 sticks)
1½ cups sugar 10.5 ounces
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400° Position rack in the middle of the oven.
Combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk or fork.
In a medium mixing bowl with an electric mixer, beat the butter with the 1½ cups sugar until smooth and creamy, not fluffy. Beat in the eggs just until blended. Add the flour mixture and stir or beat on low speed just until incorporated. Gather the dough into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.
Mix the remaining 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl. Form level tablespoons of dough with an ice cream scoop, into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar and place 2 inches apart on the lined or ungreased cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 11 minutes, until the cookies puff and begin to settle down. To create crevices, when cookies puff, tap cookie sheet on rack. This causes the cookie to sink, creating crinkles. Rotate the cookie sheet from front to back halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking. Bake until the edges are golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool for a couple of minutes. Remove cookies with a spatula to a wire rack. Don't let them cool completely or the cookies will stick to the sheet. I bake on ungreased sheets to minimize spreading.
Cool the cookies completely before stacking or storing. May be kept in an airtight container for several days.

When Life Gives You Lemons…Make Lemon Bars!

By threejamigos | August 16, 2015 | Comments 0 Comment

Who doesn’t love lemon bars? But just to be sure, I do have two recipes for lemon bars to cover just about everyone.

For the longest time, my favorite Lemon Bar was from Michael Bauer’s column in the San Francisco Chronicle. A classic lemon bar with a meltingly tender crust topped with a sweet lemon curd and dusted with powdered sugar. These bars were the hidden gems in a summer picnic basket or the citrus foil to the chocolate cookies on the holiday cookie tray.

Along came Alice

….Medrich that is, the chocolate maven. She penned a wonderful little cookbook simply titled Cookies and Brownies (still available luckily). Fifty recipes of classic cookies to cookies with a twist. Hands down the best snickerdoodle, delicious butter cookies with pecans and cocoa nibs, and Steve’s brownies, fudgy and decadent. For years I shied away from the bar cookies in her book. The recipe started with melting the butter for the crust. Whaaat? Melted butter for a shortbread crust? Just didn’t seem right. I finally gave in and I am glad I did. These lemon bars are a party in your mouth, the classic lemon bar amped up. The crust is buttery and crispy crunchy not soft, the perfect foil for the filling which is sweet but tart enough to make your taste buds stand up and take notice.

The next time you make lemon bars, make the classic bars if you are feeding a swarm of little kids. They’ll love them. But if you are taking them to your friends, make Alice’s version, all grown up with attitude, just like us!

This recipe can be baked in a tart pan, once again upping the wow game on these bars. After pressing the dough into the pan, freeze for 15 minutes before baking. If the crust puffs while baking, poke it back down with a fork. To ensure it keeps its shape weigh the crust down with pie weights and remove about halfway through baking. Remember to bake to a rich deep golden brown for a crispy, buttery crust.

Alice's Lemon Bars

A grown-up version of Lemon Bars from Alice Medrich. Tart lemon filling in a buttery, crisp base, absolutely delicious.

Course bar cookies, cookies, Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword alice medrich, buttery, lemon, Lemon Bars, lemon curd, tart

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 1

Ingredients

For crust:

8 tbsp unsalted butter, melted 1 stick
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp regular table salt or sea salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

For topping:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 -1/2 tsp finely grated lime or lemon zest
1/2 cup strained freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
Powdered sugar for dusting

Instructions

Position a rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line bottom and sides of 8- by 8-inch baking pan with aluminum foil.

To make crust:

In a medium bowl, combine melted butter with sugar, vanilla and salt. Add flour and mix until just incorporated. Press dough evenly over bottom of pan. Freeze dough for 15-20 minutes until firm. Start filling while dough chills.
Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until crust is fully baked, well-browned at the edges and golden brown in the center. If dough bubbles poke a few holes in it andpat it down.

To make topping:

While crust is baking, stir together sugar and flour in a large bowl until well-mixed. Whisk in eggs. Stir in lime or lemon zest and juice. When crust is ready, reduce heat to 300 degrees, slide rack with pan out and pour filling onto hot crust. Bake 20 to 25 minutes longer, or until topping no longer jiggles when pan is tapped.
Remove from oven to a wire rack to cool completely. Lift up foil liner and transfer bars to a cutting board. If surface is covered with a thin layer of moist foam (not unusual), blot surface gently with a paper towel to absorb excess moisture; repeat with a fresh piece of paper towel if necessary.
Using a long, sharp knife, cut bars into 16 or 24 daintier bars and sift powdered sugar over bars, if desired. Stored in an airtight container, bars can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.
I bake my lemon bars in a rectangular tart pan with removable bottom. It gives the bars a nice side crust and a nice finished look. The idea came from the blog Baking Obsession Check it out for instructions to bake in a rectangular pan.