Wednesday - Nana Kate's Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles. Falmouth Maine (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

               

      I have two memories when you say snickerdoodles. Mary Lisa Twist, one of my best friends growing up, had a labradoodle named Snickerdoodle. He was a total love bug.

And then there was Nana Kate's snickerdoodles in my plastic Halloween jack o' lantern.

Jack-o-lantern (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Oddly enough, Nana Kate will only make snickerdoodles for Halloween.

When she was a child, her family made the cookies up by the dozens and handed them out to the kids trick-or-treating in her neighborhood.  Nana Kate said that no one handed out candy, it was far too expensive a luxury.  Most times she would get apples; sometimes it was a piece of cornbread. Nana Kate was proud that her family was able to hand out such a fabulous treat. It gave her a lot of street cred. The Kids were all friendly with Nana Kate in October.  Nana Kate grew up and moved to D.C. where she handed out snickerdoodles  to the trick-or-treaters at our apartment building. She had a lot of street cred with our neighborhood, too.

                I, on the other hand, do not sequester snickerdoodles in the Halloween-only-corner. No. I equate snickerdoodles with just about any celebration –even if I’m  celebrating Tuesday night. Or that I’m reading a good book. Or rain…

                The thing that I like about snickerdoodles is they’re quick to put together, quick to cook, and quick to satisfy. This is Nana Kate’s secret family recipe that she passed down to me and has given me permission to pass on to you – since she saw the exact same recipe printed in the newspaper last week.

INGREDIENTS

1 c buter

1 ½ c sugar (I’ve tried to substitute Splenda and some others and it’s just not the same)
2 large eggs
Butter and a butter knife (Photo credit: Wikipedia) 2 ¾ cups of flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp. salt
4 T sugar
2 T cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees on bake (not convection bake).

Cream butter with 1 ½ c sugar when fluffy add eggs one at a time.

Blend your dry ingredients in a separate bowl , slowly incorporate into the butter mixture.  Put this in an air tight container in the fridge for 15 minutes or so.  While it’s chilling mix the 4T of sugar and cinnamon together.  Take the chilled dough out and form into one inch balls. Roll the balls into the cinnamon sugar mixture . Place on an ungreased cookie sheet  and bake for 8-10 minutes. Remove immediately to a wire rack.

Deutsch: Ein Glas Milch English: A glass of milk Français : Un verre de lait (Photo credit: Wikipedia)                Once they are cooled you can package them up and share them with the neighbors to spread the smiles – and maybe even develop a little of Nana Kate’s street cred.

Enjoy (with a glass of ice cold milk)!  

Related articles

• Gluten-Free Snickerdoodles

Fridays I Spent With Abuela Rosa, Flan

Homemade Flan (Photo credit: Wikipedia)Fridays were my favorite. I spent Fridays with my next-door neighbors, the Diegos. Abuela Rosa was originally from Puerto Rico. She was round, soft, and cheerful; she loved to laugh and sing and rumba. Friday night was always a fiesta. Family came to eat from Abuela’s abundant table, and then they’d push the furniture aside for music, and dancing. My Spanish became fluid, if not fluent, under their instruction.

While Abuela Rosa’s son, Javier, taught me to play the guitar and sing, her daughter taught me to dance the very sensual dances of Latin America. I felt naughty when I first learned to dance that way, with swaying hips and coquettish eyes, tempting the boys with my body. I soon loved it though. It made me feel womanly and powerful, to watch the boys watch my body tracing out the strains of the melody, my feet keeping pace with the beat.


Flan
This recipe is easy once you have the hang of it. If you mess up while you’re getting the hang of it, portion it into individual bowls and call it custard.

Preheat over to 350The first stage in making caramel is to start with a simple syrup by dissolving 2 parts sugar in 1 part water over medium heat. This image is from filtsai.com. A larger version can be obtained from http://www.filtsai.com/cooking/caramel/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Take a non-stick fry pan and coat the bottom with real sugar (about 1 cup). I like to use sugar only. It seems to work best for me -- it's the way I learned it from Abuela Rosa.  Her sister Tia Karina insists that it comes out better when you put in 1 cup of  sugar and 1/2 cup of water. You may want to experiment and see what works best for you. Put it on a medium heat and just let it sit. This will turn into caramel in about 15 minutes or so. The timing depends largely on the weather and humidity.

While you are waiting (without stirring!) for your sugar to melt, put 3 eggs in a mixing bowl and whip them until they are a soft pale yellow color.

By now your sugar is ready. You need a pie dish. Pour the liquid caramel quickly into a glass pie dish. If you are new to this: try warming your pie dish first in the oven. This will give you more time. Pour into the center and immediately - and I mean fast! - swirl your pie dish to coat the bottom. It will harden. Set this aside.
Now into the bowl with your 3 whipped eggs add:
A can of carnation milk (12 oz)
A can of sweet condensed milk (14 oz)
2 tsp vanilla




Stir this together to blend and pour it into your caramel covered pie dish.Bake this in a BAÑO DE MARIA. That means place a large pan in the oven (like a broiler pan), place the pie plate with egg mixture in the center, add water to the large pan so that it comes about half way up the pie plate. This allows the custard to cook gently and evenly.


Bake for 1 hour until the middle is set. Let the flan cool on a rack, then put into the fridge to thoroughly chill.
To serve: run a knife around the edges then put your serving plate on top. Holding it firmly, invert in one quick motion. Your caramel will be liquid again.


This is a beautiful desert. Abuela also used it to tempt sick tummies to eat a little something, or for breakfast…okay we liked it so much we looked for excuses to make it and eat it! Good thing I jog.