The day Snickerdoodles became a food group

Not a drop of white flour. . . and what a sweet day it was.

I can’t help myself. The kids were home from school again, winter storms keep coming, we’ve been stuck inside too long, and I can think of nothing else to do except cook and bake. I was inspired by a recipe in King Arthur Flour Whole Grain Baking for a multi-grain snicker-doodle. Stay with me… grains like barley which impart a rich malt flavor, and are amazingly healthy, and ground oats.

While I was grinding the oats in my food processor, I began to worry about the nutrition component in my picky eater’s current diet, and I added almonds and walnuts to the food processor too, adding Omega 3s and protein. The result was the best-tasting snicker-doodle I have ever had. . . in . . . my . . . life. And my picky eaters got some nutrition too. For more Best Shot Mondays, click here.

First make the coating and set aside:

Coating

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• Put the coating in a Ziploc bag, and keep it away from the kids.

The dough recipe:

• 3/4 cup (1.5 sticks, 6 oz.) unsalted butter.
• 1 1/2 cups (10.5 oz.) sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon orange juice
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/3 cups (4 5/8 oz.) old-fashioned rolled oats, ground for 30 seconds in a food processor
• 1 cup (4 oz.) barley flour*
• 1/2 cup 2 ounces whole wheat flour*
• 1/4 cup ground nuts* (Almonds, walnuts, pistachios… whatever you have on hand.) Grind them to a fine powder. Add some of the 1/2 cup wheat flour to keep the oils in the nuts to a nice powder.

1. Cream the butter, sugar, baking powder, salt and vanilla.
2. Beat in the orange juice and eggs.
3. Add the dry ingredients
4. Refrigerate the dough overnight. I couldn’t wait… we froze it and used it in an hour.
5. Tell the kids to stop getting into the refrigerator/freezer.
6. Pull the dough out of its cold environment.
7. Preheat the oven to 350, lightly grease two baking sheets or use parchment paper.
8. Roll tablespoons of dough into balls.
9. Drop into a Ziploc bag, with the “coating.”
10. Shake gently to coat the cookies.
11. Place on baking sheet, with enough spacing for the cookies to flatten while they bake.
12. Bake for 12-14 minutes.
13. Save some for me.

*Always store in the freezer. They are full of oils and can go rancid.