Blueberry Snickerdoodles.

For the last three months, I've wanted to bake one thing and one thing only:

Snickerdoodles.

With blueberries!

I just wanted to know, but I kept putting it off. What would blueberries taste like in snickerdoodles? 

Would it taste like a muffin? Would it taste like a cookie? Would the blueberries explode and make them totally blue? 

I kind of hoped so. 4th of July, right?

So when I went to the store this week because we were not-so-surprisingly out of butter and found myself for the seventeenth time circling the berries, I thought, Fine. I'll buy them. Well... when they go on sale. The blueberries, that is. Blueberries are expensive, man.

Fact: blueberries never go on sale.

I'll wait until I go to that pick-your-own-blueberry farm. That's cheaper, right? No! I'll grow my own blueberries. On trees. Do blueberries grow on trees? Bushes? Vines? Who puts blueberries in snickerdoodles anyway? But it sounds delicious, right? Like a muffin? I love muffins. I should go to Starbucks after this. 

I put a pint in my cart. Took it out. Put it back. Took them out. Considered strawberries. Walked away. Came back. Bit my nails. 

And then finally I caved.  Best. decision. ever.

I used the perfect snickerdoodles recipe that I posted last Christmas, only instead of turning out soft inside and slightly crispy on the out, they came out thick and cakey and dreamy and bursting with fresh, juicy blueberries and a crackly, buttery layer of cinnamon-sugar.  

And very much not-blue.

See? Bursting. Little bubbly lava flows of blueberry goodness.

These are a little bit like the strawberry shortcake cookies I made in that they're best the day they're made or over the next few days, since they're made with fresh fruit and all.

Not that they lasted that long.

Finally. A cookie that can pass as a breakfast food!

Blueberry Snickerdoodles

Printable Recipe

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 large egg
2 heaping cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
*1 cup fresh blueberries
1/4 cup granulated sugar & 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon for rolling cookies in

Preheat oven to 375°F.

Beat together butter, vegetable oil, granulated sugar, powdered sugar, and egg. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Slowly beat flour mixture into the butter mixture. Gently fold in the blueberries, being careful not to crush them. Otherwise you'll end up with purpleish-blue cookies, but if that's your thing, then go for it!

In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup granulated sugar and cinnamon. Shape dough into 1-inch balls, then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture.

Place balls 3 to 4 inches apart on a greased baking sheet. With a flat-bottomed glass dipped in cinnamon-sugar, slightly flatten cookies. Be careful not to totally crush the berries though. Again... blue cookies.

Bake for 11-13 minutes, or until edges being to slightly brown and a toothpick inserted into the center of the cookie comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen cookies.

*Because of the fresh berries, these cookies are best eaten within 3-4 days of making. 

Source: Adapted from Sunset, 1998. 

What My Dad Taught Me.

Don't get me wrong, over the last twenty-four years, my mom has taught me a lot of important things. How to shave my legs. How to make coffee and homemade hot chocolate. How to do laundry. That "set butter out to soften" really means "microwave for eight seconds" and that sometimes it's okay to eat peanut butter off a spoon or use a boxed cake mix. 

We're talking important life skills here, people. 

But the down and dirty stuff? That's my dad's area. Riding a bike. Driving a car. Checking my oil. Geometry. Fixing things. What to do if there's an earthquake. Taxes. Tipping. How to make a rum & Coke.

And baking!

So, in honor of Father's Day, and because I'm procrastinating making baked Alaska, since I have no idea what baked Alaska is but it's what he's asked for for Sunday, here's a list of the some of the baking things I've learned over the years from my dad.

1. To clean up as I go.

Real talk. Because by the time I've loaded a three-layer cake into the oven, the last thing I want to do is wash a bunch of dishes.

2. How to make perfectly even cake layers that never stick to the cake pans.

Shortening & flour!

3. How to make frosting and properly frost cakes.

... and more importantly, how to put frosting on cinnamon-sugar graham crackers and eat them for dinner.

4. How to "properly" roll out dough.

These are Dad Hands. They say, I'm wise, listen to me, I know what I'm doing. Stop taking your dumb pictures and watch what I'm doing. 

Fine. Keep taking pictures. Your biscuits will never be as good as mine anyways.

My dad is the only person I know who measures out the thickness of his dough with an actual ruler, right down to the centimeter. He's that precise.

But maybe I'm just impatient jealous that all his cookies and biscuits come out perfectly level.

Can you guess who made the lopsided English muffins? Yeah. My sugar cookies and biscuits pretty much look the same too. I'm more of a seat-of-my-pants dough-roller.

5. How to make perfectly fluffy scrambled eggs.

1 tablespoon of water for every egg and whiskwhiskwhisk.

6. Don't be afraid to try new things or to deviate from a recipe. That's how new recipes are created!

7. And on that note: to learn from my mistakes.

This is usually followed with, "Did you read the entire recipe?", "Did you grease the pans with shortening & flour... or with Pam?", or "Well, what have we learned this time?"

And a very annoying I-told-you-so look.

8. What the following baking terms mean: knead. scald. stiff peaks. soft peaks. cut in. fold in. double-boiler. pastry cutter. trifle. room temperature. patience.

9. Do what makes you happy, no matter what anyone says.

It doesn't matter if we actually need cupcakes or cookies. Baking makes me happy. So I bake!

10. Remember salt river bars?

The recipe actually came from my dad.

So did the peanut butter blossoms.

Aaaaand the raspberry almond shortbread thumbprints, peanut butter cup treats, chocolate chip peanut meltaways, lemon raspberry trifles, southern cornbread, and perfect buttermilk biscuits that literally melt in your mouth.

And just for kicks... three things he's tried to teach me that just aren't happening:

1. English shortbread.

I'm sorry. I try. I really do. I just can't make the crumbly dough stay together. Are we still family?

2. Beer-can chicken.

I can't even watch. It makes me giggle.

3. Patience in the kitchen.

... no comment.

Happy Father's Day to the greatest dad in the world! Thank you for teaching me all that you know and taste-testing my cookies, frosting my cakes, running to the store when I run out of sugar, and putting up with the "stupid Santa apron" you swear you're not going to wear every Christmas, but always do. 

You're the best dad in the world & I love you!  

Three-Tone Frosting for Cupcakes.

I think you should make fancy cupcakes today. Don't you?

Or at least fancy frosting.

Maybe pipe it on a spoon and eat it straight for breakfast? Why not!

Let your hair down! It's summer! The three months of the year where it's socially acceptable to eat things like fried Oreos and cheesecake on a stick and chocolate chip cookies stuffed with s'mores.

And spoonfuls of red, white, & blue frosting.

For breakfast. Do it.

What's that, you say? Pie is the new cupcake? Nay. Cupcakes are the new cupcake. You know how I know? Because I made pie last week. And it was not fun.

Forgetting to add lemon to a lemon meringue pie? Not fun. Starting all over? Frozen pie crust that shatters in your hands as you try to unroll it?

Not.

Fun.

These? Fun!

I'm kind of proud of this one. It looks like a flag, no?

I giggled. Then I ate them. I froze them. Then I ate them frozen. And that's how it went.

Want to do it too? Here's how!

Three-Tone Frosting for Cupcakes

Printable How-To

1 batch of frosting (I used this recipe for vanilla buttercream, but this is a close favorite too.)

1 batch of cupcakes, baked and cooled completely

4 separate piping bags

1 piping tip (I used a Wilton #1M tip for these cupcakes). 

1. Make your frosting. Actually... make your cupcakes. Allow them to cool completely, then make a batch of frosting and separate it evenly into different bowls, adding whatever color or flavor you fancy.

2. Fill a separate piping bag with each individual color, one color per bag. Don't fill them up too much... they all need to be able to fit into one piping bag in a minute. You can always come back later and add more frosting to each bag as you need it.

Twist the tops of each bag closed to prevent frosting from exploding out.

Trust me on this.

3. Place all three bags into a fourth piping bag fitted with a decorating tip. You may have to hold the ends closed and squish the frosting down the bag to make them long and thin like a hotdog so they can all fit.

Make sure all three colors are placed evenly in the bag, otherwise one color may come out more than the other, and twist the bag closed. 

4. Do a couple of test swirls until the frosting comes out evenly and smooth.

See how the frosting is mostly blue with a teensy bit of red? 

It should look more like this, with the colors mostly even. Yay! Let's do this.

5. Frost your cupcakes! 

Now go make your friends jealous with your awesome new piping skills. 

Fluffernutter Chocolate Gobs.

I have a new favorite cookie.

Fluffernutter chocolate gobs.

I know. I giggled too. But peanut butter is my weakness. So peanut butter with toasted marshmallows and melted chocolate? Um... yes. I had to make these.

And I did. And then I swooned. And ate entire handfuls of them for dinner. They're perfectly soft, crumbly, fudgey peanut butter cookies with a salty, almost melt-in-your-mouth cookie dough center, topped with puffy marshmallows and a rich, thick chocolate glaze.

I have nothing else to say except make them.

Then eat at least four of them. 

Then maybe I won't feel so bad for eating three in a row for dinner. And a frozen one of these for dessert. Would I lie to you? Three. And a cupcake. Calories, what? Diets? Swimsuits? Summer? Sigh.

Fluffernutters indeed.

These are addicting, I'm warning you.

Oh and I might have a sprinkles problem. Because I may have done this.

And then this.

So I can convince you to make them at Christmastime too.

I know.

It's June.

But they're that good.

Also: Sorry, Daniel! I realize I made these for you and then left you about three or four. I buried them under the rocky road bites and hoped you wouldn't notice. 

I love you!

Fluffernutter Chocolate Gobs

Printable Recipe

Cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Mini marshmallows

Chocolate Glaze 
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons milk, depending on how thick you want it

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, beat the butter, peanut butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for 2 minutes until light and fluffy. Add in the egg and vanilla.

Gradually add in flour mixture on low speed. Chill dough for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Place by rounded spoonfuls on a lightly greased cooking sheet and bake for 7-9 minutes, until edges are very lightly browned. Remove from oven and place 3 or 4 mini marshmallows on top of each cookie (you may need to flatten the cookies slightly with a spatula first), then return to oven for 2-3 minutes, until the marshmallows are melted. Let cool completely.

When cooled completely, make the glaze by melting the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in the cocoa powder and mix until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Slowly stir in the powdered sugar, gradually adding the milk as needed to get it the desired consistency (you want it thin enough to drizzle, but thick enough that it won't run all over- a little thicker than molasses). Spoon a small amount over the top of each cookie. (I ended up running out of glaze for the last half-dozen cookies or so and melted chocolate chips with a little bit of shortening to make a quick glaze... it was just as delicious.) Glaze with set slightly upon cooling.

Makes about 2 dozen cookies.

Source: Sing for Your Supper.