These might look similar to snickerdoodles, but they’re not. Do you know why? Because I’m not that fond of snickerdoodles. They often have a crunchier texture and aftertaste that I just do not enjoy.
Cinnamon, though, is the best. So these soft-baked sugar cookies are rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked to happy perfection. These are the way to get your school snack munchies on!
If you know anything about wearing high heels for a day, you also know that it’s always a stupid decision. They make everything hurt as you get older, from your feet right up to your back and beyond.
Men never understand why women subject themselves to this torture. Men also never have their calves up for inspection in form-fitting dresses. High heels might hurt like the dickens, but they also make you look darn good.
Of course, I wore heels on the first day of school all day. Oh, the pain. The horrible pain. Remind me in a year never to do that again. I’ll have to atone all winter by wearing Uggs every single day.
Yesterday as I was hobbling around, I took a few minutes to put out a plate of these cinnamon sugar cookies for the teachers. I wanted us to sit down at lunch and share first day trauma stories. It’s always much easier to share trauma over cookies.
I’m not sure if anyone had a story like that (yay for good first days!), but we chatted about our lives. Who was getting married, who had a baby, who had a kid starting kindergarten, all of that. You know, real life stuff. It felt good to take a cookie break with everyone.
These cookies are so inviting and comforting. They’re super soft, and their buttery sugary goodness is unbounded. You’ll be very popular if you bake these!
Whether or not you choose to suffer with high heels in life, there’s always a cookie out there to comfort you. That, above all, is sweetly reassuring!
Ingredients
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter. Add the sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Stir in the egg and vanilla, beating until smooth.
- In a small bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda and cream of tartar. Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing until the dough is smooth.
- Form the dough into balls (about 1-2 tablespoons in size) and place on a plate. The dough will be soft but manageable.
- Chill the cookie dough for anywhere between three hours and overnight.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350. Line two cookie sheets with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, combine the cinnamon and sugar. Roll each cookie dough ball in the mixture and place on the prepared cookie sheet.
- Bake cookies for 8 minutes exactly. Do not overbake them. They will be pale, but done.
- Cool completely. Store in an airtight container.
The gas light comes on in the car. Your six-month dental checkup comes due. You realize you didn’t pay your credit card bill. Somebody gets the promotion you deserved. Your favorite pair of shoes loses a heel in the middle of the workday. And the bananas lie forgotten on the counter, turning from green to yellow to spotty to brown.
But that last one has a definite upside because all you do is bake it into banana bread. Moist, delicious, banana bread filled and glazed with brown sugar. Just for those days when things aren’t going quite your way!
The other day, we took the kids to a swim center with a three-foot therapy pool. If you’ve never been to one of those, I must recommend it. The water is warm (like in the 80s warm), and the pool is surrounded by hot tubs.
Sadly, I never actually bonded with the hot tubs because I was with my four year-old (who cannot swim), but it felt good to sit with her in the warm water, waves gently lapping to and fro. The pool also had a slide and splash fountains, which means my older kids had a blast.
See, here’s the thing. We’ve been desperately trying to get our children, especially our oldest, to swim. He’s fighting it like nothing else. We’ve been through six rounds of lessons and it’s still not technically happening. At least he’s not doing what he did last summer, which was holding onto the side with a death grip while floating his legs out, screaming, “I’m swimming! I’m swimming!”
Now we’ve got some head under water progress, and I’m waiting for the day when they can all float so I can breathe a little easier. I see families at the pool relaxing and I think, hey, that could be me someday. But somehow I doubt it. No matter how soon or how well my kids swim, I’ll always be that mom squatting at the edge of the pool, eyes darting back and forth at all her spawn. Yes, even when they’re 25. I can only relax at a pool when my kids aren’t there.
So after we all trooped back from the swim center, we had this banana bread waiting for us. It was a good after-pool snack because you know everyone is always starving after a swim. This bread is hearty and doesn’t disappoint.
To make sure everyone could enjoy it, I used gluten-free oat flour as the base. And instead of using just white sugar, I put a great deal of brown sugar into the batter to make it super moist. The top is covered with a buttery, thick brown sugar glaze. It tastes like caramel.
Life is full of inconveniences, but nobody ever complained about the leftover bananas on the counter. Or at least, they shouldn’t. Because they make the sweetest brown sugar banana bread ever. Whether you bake this up for Mother’s Day or just for a random day of the week, it’s a fantastic breakfast treat!
Ingredients
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Coat a loaf pan generously with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, combine the eggs and both sugars until well mixed. Add the mashed bananas, oil, yogurt and vanilla, stirring until smooth (there will be some banana lumps). Add the dry ingredients, mixing again until the batter is well combined.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Cool completely and remove the cake to a plate.
- Make the glaze. On the stovetop, heat the butter, brown sugar and heavy cream until boiling, stirring regularly. Let the mixture boil for a minute and then turn down the heat. Simmer for an additional minute and then remove the saucepan from the heat completely. Add the sifted powdered sugar, stirring until it dissolves.
- Wait a few minutes for the glaze to thicken slightly. Spoon it over the bread and let it set.
- Slice the bread when you're ready. Store covered.
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