Operation Baking GALS: Round 15 (Recipes: Snickerdoodles, Cowboy Cookies, Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels)

I have had a very busy work schedule the past two months and my poor little blog has suffered!  I have been baking and cooking many recipes and hope to get caught up after the Holidays.

I was sure to make time this past weekend to bake cookies for another round of Operation Baking GALS.  As I have mentioned before, Operation Baking GALS is a group of volunteer bakers who bake and send homemade goods to our military men and women.  The goal of the organization is to show our support and remind them how much we appreciate everything that they do for our freedom.

I signed up for 3 Teams this month.  Two were outside of the country and one will be going out next weekend to a group of soldier that are recovering back here in the U.S.  I actually sent out three packages earlier this week as one of the soldiers we were baking for had a friend that had not received a package yet so I felt the need to send him one!

The menu consisted of Snickerdoodles, Cowboy Cookies, and Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels.  I have made the cowboy cookies before (aka Cowgirl Cookies for Breast Cancer Awareness), but the snickerdoodles and pinwheels were new.  The snickerdoodles were my Mom's recipe and came out exactly how I remembered them.  They are a sweet and buttery cookie that are crunchy on the bottom and have a top that is filled with sugar and cinnamon.  While taste testing a few it brought me back to days of sitting on the couch in her house taste testing many of hers!

The Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels are a recipe I came across as I have been pouring over my magazines, emails, and recipe boxes deciding what I will make for the Christmas Trays this year.  My first post last year (click here to read it!), was all about the Christmas Cookie Trays tradition of my Mom's that I have continued.  I have really enjoyed my blogging experience to date and look forward to dedicating more time in 2010 to my love of baking and cooking!

So, the chocolate peppermint pinwheels did not turn out exactly as I had thought.  I had expected more flavor from them.  They were also a fair amount of work.  I probably would not complain about that as much if they were some superb cookie!  I hope the soldiers don't think I am bad baker!  I really wanted to start over and do an old standby, but I had already baked dozens of cookies and needed to get things packaged up and ready to go to the post office.  Included in each package were about 4 dozen of the variety of cookies, some gum, candy, munchies, and mini candy canes.  I hope everything arrives in one piece and is not stale!

This weekend I will be finalizing my cookie tray list.  I think I did 11 kinds last year.  There are a handful of standard ones that I make and then each year I try a few new ones.  What are your favorite Christmas cookie recipes?  I saw a treat in a catalog the other day that I just had to try myself.  I did a test run in my "test kitchen" last night and they came out great.  I am going to a friend's party later this week and will be bringing them.  If you are a fan of whoopie pies, you must check back for this great tasting and fun recipe!

Below are the recipes for the cookies I made for the troops:

Snickerdoodles

 Kate's recipe box

Printable recipe

1 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
3 tsp cinnamon

Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs thoroughly.  Blend in dry ingredients.  Shape ball into 1" balls and then roll in sugar.  Don't sugar the bottoms.  I used my small cookie scoop and did not form all of them into a ball shape (see photo below).  The reason for this is when they bake the top crackles more and you get that not even look.  Place 2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake 8-10 minutes.  My Mom's recipe said it made 6 dozen, but I got 4 dozen!

Chocolate Peppermint Pinwheels
adapted from First
Makes about 6 dozen
Printable recipe

3 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 lb unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
6 Tbsp crushed red and white had peppermint candies or candy canes
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

Combine flour, salt, and soda.  Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla and eggs.  Beat in flour mixture.  Divide dough in half.  Stir crushed peppermints into one half and beat chocolate into remaining half.

Flatten each piece, wrap, and refrigerate 1 hour.

Roll out each piece of dough between sheets of lightly floured waxed paper to a rectangle approximately 16"x9".  Put peppermint dough on top of chocolate dough and roll out to a rectangle approximately 18"x10". 

Starting with one long side roll dough up into a log.  Chill at least 1 hour.

 

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cut dough into approximately 1/4" slices.  Put 2" apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake until edges just start to brown, 5 to 8 minutes.  Cool on wire racks.

Cowboy Cookies:  click here.  Note, these were called cowgirl cookies when I used pink M&Ms and cowboy cookies when I used red and green M&Ms!