Sugar and Sass

Wow, I guess this is what happens when you only post twice a week! I just remembered (after stumbling on the photo again in my Flickr stream) that I had made these cut-out cookies a couple weeks back! Essentially, they are a lightly cinnamon-spiced sugar cookie dough that I chilled, rolled out and cut into circles before using tiny fondant cutters to stamp holes in the middle of each (I have no idea why we own them - nobody here has done any fondant work that I know of!). I stuck a couple Red Hot cinnamon hearts (on sale for dirt cheap, probably becuase nobody likes them... haha) into each hole, thinking that like the candy corn that caused such travesty on V-Day itself they would melt into a window-pane like appearance.

But, sigh, I was wrong again!

Turns out that the hearts would have been perfect to stick into cookies - they don't melt except for a tiny bit of congealing, and they definitely don't do the "glass-like" look that other candy does in the oven. However, the little bit of goo they did generate was enough to stick them together and to the "walls" of the cut-out hole, so in a sense it worked... just not how I thought it would!

I said that nobody really likes the cinnamon hearts - while I know there are those out there that would prove me wrong, my mom, dad and Andrew all groaned when they heard what I had created. I don't like them either, mind you, and I don't really know why I bought the bag of candies apart from the fact they were cheap. However, the gluttons wonderful people at her office seemed to like them well enough... they disappeared at the same rate as the other goodies that appear there!

Devil - Spice Cookies
Makes about 12
1/3 cup shortening
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tsp tapioca starch
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
hot cinnamon candy hearts as needed

1. Stir together the tapioca starch, cinnamon, flour, and baking powder. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in vanilla.
3. Gently but thoroughly blend in the dry ingredients.
4. Wrap in cling film and chill 4-8 hours.
5. Preheat oven to 400F.
6. Roll dough out on floured surface and cut into circles, then cut holes in each circle.
7. Place cookies 1 inch apart on lined cookie sheets, and fill holes with the cinnamon candy.
8. Bake 8-10 minutes in preheated oven. Cool completely on sheets.

And I know, I know... I haven't posted the breakfasty goodness I promised last time... once I get it typed up it's all yours, I promise!