Cookies, Cookies, Cookies

It's family reunion time.  What are you taking?  Did you have to run to the store to make you favorite yummy?  Food storage isn't always about being prepared for an emergency sometimes it's about surviving a stressful morning without an extra trip to the store.

Here are a few of our favorites.
  
Snickerdoodles
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp cinnamon

 Cream butter and sugar, add eggs.  Add dry ingredients (except sugar and cinnamon). Chill dough several hours.  Form 1 inch balls, roll in cinnamon and sugar.  (Don't flatten).  Bake at 350 degrees for 9 to 10 minutes, for a crisp cookie. (7-8 for softer cookies).          
  Peanut Butter Bars
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 sugar
1 1/2 brown sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups rolled oats
3 cups flour
1 1/2 cup peanut butter


Mix well first 7 ingredients.  Then add the next 3 .  Spread in pan (about 18" x 26") and bake for 10 minutes at 325 degrees.  It will be barely brown.  Remove from oven and quickly sprinkle 16 oz. chocolate chips on top.  As they melt, spread evenly over top.  When cooled, frost with peanut butter frosting

Frosting
1/4 cup peanut butter
powdered sugar
evaporated milk

Frosting:  Add sugar and  milk to the peanut butter to make an easily spreadable frosting. 

**Another way to top these is to cool 5 minutes, then spread with peanut butter, cool 1 hour and frost with chocolate frosting.

Stock up prices - Just to give you and idea of what it might cost to get these ingredients in your pantry or freezer.

Costco 2/2012
Oats 10 lb - $7.39 (.05 an oz)  *LDS Home Storage Center 25 lbs - $15.35 (.038 an oz)
Peanut Butter 2 - 48 oz $10.99 (.11 per oz)  *$1.76 a pound - Smith's is $2.50
Butter 4 lbs $6.99 ($1.90 a pound)
Evaporated milk 12 - 12oz cans $11.59 (.96 per can or .08 per oz)
Powdered Sugar 4 lbs $3.45 (.86 a pound)
Vanilla 16oz - $6.79 (.42 an oz)
Brown Sugar 25 lb - $14.99 (.60 a pound)
Flour - 25 lbs - $7.19  ( .29 a pound) *LDS Home Storage Center 25lbs - $13.30

Baking Soda 13.5 lbs - $5.99  (.44 a pound)

Baking Powder 5lb - $9.99 (2 a pound)

Sugar 25 lb - $16.35 (.65 a pound)*LDS Home Storage Center 25lb - $15 (.60 a pound)

Whole Wheat Snickerdoodles.

Those of you in the Foxglen Park ward might remember getting the pamphlet entitled "What will I do with all this wheat?" in Relief Society.  It seemed like such a helpful pamphlet that we wanted to post some of the recipes here for you.  Even though I wasn't there for her lesson Kay was kind enough to get me a copy.  The pamphlet originally came from another ward so I can't give credit to anyone for the recipes but Kay vouches for the wheat thins one and I'm going to try out a few of the others.

Starting with Whole Wheat Snickerdoodle Cookies.

The process starts with some hard white wheat and my kind of ancient Magic Mill wheat grinder.

My flour is pretty coarse, I don't know if newer grinders are better but as a result anything I make (even on the tightest setting) is a bit crunchy/chewy.

Ingredients:
1 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temp**
2 eggs
1 1/3 cup organic sugar**
3 cups white whole wheat flour*
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp salt**

 Roll cookies in
2tsp cinnamon mixed with 3 Tbsp sugar



Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper, or lightly grease.

Beat sugar and butter for 2 minutes, beat in eggs an vanilla.

Sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar and salt.

Gradually add in dry ingredients.

Roll dough into 1 1/2-in. balls and then roll in cinnamon mixture.

Place 2-in. apart on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown.

Cool 2 minutes before removing from cookie sheet.

Transfer to rack to cool completely.
printable recipe

The result . . . Well, different, there were very flat (probably could have used more flour) and crunchy.  Let me clarify, soft cookie, crunchy texture.  One of my kids said they tasted kind of like a wheat thin cracker with cinnamon and sugar on it  The were good but not great, I'm not sure I'll make them again.

* (From Wikipedia)

• White whole wheat flour is flour milled from hard white spring wheat,^[2] rather than traditional red wheat. In the United Kingdom, whole wheat flour is more commonly made from white wheat instead of red as in the United States. The difference is that soft white wheat has a lower gluten content and also lacks the tannins and phenolic acid that red wheat contain, causing white whole wheat to appear and taste more like refined red wheat; it is whitish in color and does not taste bitter.^[3]
• White whole wheat has almost the same nutrient content as red whole wheat. However, soft white whole wheat has a lower gluten content and contains a lower protein content (between 9% and 11%) when compared with harder wheats like red (15–16% protein content) or golden wheat.^{[citation needed]}

^{**I used margarine and omitted the salt.  I also used regular sugar.}