Snickerdoodles

I have looked after Isobel for the last couple of Monday afternoon's to help give W a rest. Whas somehow managed to bake us treats every Monday - snickerdooles and coconut/cherry muffins. M also made us some plum jam using plums from their tree. Recipe below is courtesy of W and some other domestic goddess.

SNICKERDOODLES
(from How to be a Domestic Goddess, Nigella Lawson, p58)

250g plain flour
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¾ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
125g butter, at room temperature
100g plus 2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 baking sheets, lined or greased
Preheat oven to 180º C.
Combine the flour, nutmeg, baking powder and salt, and set aside.
In a large bowl, cream the butter with the 100g sugar until light in texture and pale in colour, then beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the dry ingredients until you have a smooth, coherent mixture. Spoon out the remaining sugar and cinnamon onto a plate. Then, with your fingers, squidge out pieces of dough and roll between the palms of your hands into walnut-sized balls. Roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and arrange on your prepared baking sheets.
Bake for 15 minutes, by which time they should be turning golden brown. Take out of the oven and leave to rest on the baking sheets for 1 minute before transferring to a wire rack to cool.
Makes about 32.

We have had activities galore since I has been visiting (although the girls and J4 mostly play fairies - I think this week J4 was the prince of the crocodile fairies) as well as the normal cooking class, we made paper tracings of the girls and they decorated them, made T-shirts with some iron on stickers and tried our hand at beaded necklaces. I also tried to get them to draw their favourite animal (butterfly's of course) and thought I could made a stuffed toy from felt from the drawings, would have been more successful if I could sew, but alas I cannot.