Nathan Branch ©2011 All rights reserved Snickerdoodles baked from the Milk & Cookies book. They look much darker than the traditional snickerdoodle because I used a combination of vanilla and rapadura sugars instead of plain white sugar (with the vanilla sugar including ground vanilla beans, making the dough darker still). I also added natural Aftelier cinnamon and blood cedarwood essences to enhance the warm, rich aromas. The cinnamon essence brought out the cinnamon in the cookies, of course, but the blood cedar essence coaxed out a deep, almost chocolate sensation. Terrifically rich flavor, and great texture, too! Chewy, a little crispy (without being too crispy), with the sugar/cinnamon mixture baked on top adding a delightful sonic crunch when I bite into them. Ingredients: organic stone ground white flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, smoked sea salt, organic butter, vegetable shortening, organic rapadura sugar, organic vanilla sugar, free range eggs, organic vanilla paste, ground cinnamon, Aftelier cinnamon essence and Aftelier blood cedarwood essence. They were far too soft and wet in the middle after only the ten minutes baking time suggested in the book, so I left them in the oven for an extra five minutes to get that nice Snickerdoodle crackle on top. But my oven seems to run a bit cool in that regard -- I'm always having to bake cookies and cakes longer than the times printed in cookbooks.

Nathan Branch ©2011 David Lebovitz suggests, in his book "Ready For Dessert", that letting the cookie dough "rest" for at least 24 hours before baking improves the flavor. To test that theory, I baked a batch of cookies immediately after finishing the mixing, and then a second batch of cookies 24 hours later. Both batches tasted great, and I don't personally feel the 24 hour rest improved the flavor of the cookies in any significant way. But I highly recommend Lebovitz's recipe for chocolate chip cookies. I (of course) couldn't keep myself from modifying it to my own liking, but in order to successfully modify a cookie recipe, it has to be pretty darn solid to begin with. The Lebovitz recipe is one of the best I've encountered yet. Ingredients: organic stone-ground white flour, organic baking soda, raw organic sugar, organic raw vanilla sugar, smoked salt, butter, organic light muscovado sugar, organic ground vanilla pods, free-range eggs, toasted organic hazelnuts, Vivani 85% cacao dark bitter organic chocolate, Loving Earth Lucuma & Maca Organic raw chocolate, ground clove, ground cinnamon, ground coffee, Kahlua and saffron extract.