Plain Vanilla Cookies

Before I start, perhaps I should explain myself: until very recently, I was unemployed. Having nothing to do all day besides apply for jobs, I decided to learn to cook. Up until this point, I was a useless cook. I was not good at cooking, and sometimes had trouble making pasta that came in a box. But with nothing else to do during the day I started experimenting with cooking. I came up with a bunch of weird things - some delicious treats, and some miserable failures (never again shall I attempt coconut cream pie. I'll just buy one next time). However, through some cosmic miracle I got a job, and rather than fall back into my old habit of "never cooking ever," I figure I'd start a blog as some sort of incentive to keep on with my cooking experiments. This may or may not work. I may lose interest. But it would be nice to record some of the details of my more successful (they don't cause food poisoning!) creations.





I may as well start with the most basic of these creations (I'm not sure if I should refer to culinary experiments as "creations." Or "experiments." I'm not Mary Shelley. Or a scientist): Plain Vanilla Cookies.

This recipe came from a recipe for Chocolate Mint Pinwheels off the Land O'Lakes Butter website: http://www.landolakes.com/recipe/2988/chocolate-mint-pinwheels

I made those Chocolate Mint Pinwheels a lot during the Holidays (though I didn't call them Chocolate Mint Pinwheels - no, I call them Minty Swirl Cookies). I'm not sure at what point I figured out "hey, if I swap the mint extract for orange extract, I can make Orangey Swirl Cookies!" but I did (and the Orangey Swirl Cookies were delicious). At some point I figured out you didn't need any chocolate and extract outside the vanilla to have a pretty good cookie recipe. It took me a while, but hey, cooking isn't second nature to me.  Anyway, basically this recipe is the Land O'Lakes recipe, minus the chocolate and the mint, and doubled to make a TON of plain vanilla cookies that aren't too sweet, but aren't bland and tasteless either. They're great in coffee.

Ingredients!

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup butter, melted in the microwave
• 2 Eggs
  
• 1 tablespoon vanilla (yeah, that's right. I said a tablespoon. Actually, I just put a bunch of teaspoons in...I don't think I've ever put the same amount of vanilla in these cookies twice. Use your best judgement. It'll be better than mine).
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. First off, melt the butter in the microwave. You don't have to melt it all the way, but I do and that works just fine for me. Mix in the sugar and whisk it together until it's pretty looking. If you have an electric mixer...good for you, I don't have one of those. It makes mixing everything a hassle, but I try to think of it as a workout. 

2. Add in eggs and vanilla (using whatever mixing implement works for you. I'd use an electric one, but those are spendy and I already own a whisk). Mix until nice and creamy looking. I suppose it would take less time for it to look all pretty with an electric mixer....

3. Mix in Flour, Baking Soda and Salt. Do not use a whisk for this, use a spoon. A whisk will get bent out of shape. Learn from my mistakes. 

4. Once it's all mixed together, roll the dough into a giant ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, put the plastic-wrapped bowl onto a plate, then put that plate in the fridge. Why on a plate? I don't trust the interior of any refrigerator. The ghosts of meals past linger for longer than we'd like to think. 

5. Let the dough sit for an hour in the fridge. Watch an episode of Downton or something while you wait. Then preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

6. Unwrap the dough and using a rolling pin (or whatever flattening implement you have should you not have access to a rolling pin. I lacked a rolling pin for a while until I finally bothered to wash the old one), roll it out as flat as you like, and, using whatever cookie cutter you like (or don't like, maybe you're creative enough to cut out your own cookie shapes with a knife. I am not) cut out your cookies, put them onto a cookie sheet, then stick them in the oven for a bit. About 5-10 minutes depending on how thick you make them. Or until they're cooked enough for you. I like mine to be soft, so I keep an eye on them until they are just slightly golden. 

7. You'll have a lot of dough, so you will need an extra cookie sheet for multiple batches. I just reform the dough and re-roll it out until there's very little left. Usually there's a small clump left that's too small for the cookie cutter but too much that I don't want to throw it away, so I usually flatten it and stick it onto the cookie sheet with the rest of the cookies. I call this my "test cookie" because it's what I eat to make sure the cookies taste good and won't cause any immediate form of emesis. 

LAST MADE: Friday.

RESULT: Tasty.

INJURIES: Burned my thumb pulling the cookie sheet out of the oven. It'll leave a pretty epic scar. 

COMPLICATIONS: The cat tried to get into the dough. Had to perform cat-guard duties while mixing dough with a plastic spoon. 

FOR NEXT TIME: Buy an electric mixer. 

Until next time, everyone. Next time there will be cake. Orangey Cake.