Another "doodle" (honeydoodles)

When looking to try a new cookie recipe I often turn to my favorite cookie book "The Ultimate cookie book" from Better Homes and gardens which offers a wide range of options, that seldom disappoint. (book linked here: http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Cookie-Better-Gardens-Cooking/dp/0696236796/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266804344&sr=8-1)

I had to make cookies for a ski weekend away with my aunt, cousin, and our respective guys, so I decided I would bang out some cookies on Saturday morning before we drove up to Vermont. I'm a honey fan, and I usually lean towards "rolled" or "shaped" cookies, so I thought these "drop" cookies would be a welcome departure from the norm.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup honey

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1/4 tsp salt

1 egg

1 1/2 cups flour
cinnamon and sugar for dusting (optional)

First off, cream the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer to loosen it up, scrape down the sides of the bowl. Next add the honey from your little honey-bear friend. Mix well. Add in the baking soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix it up, baby.

Add in the egg and mix until well combined. Finally, slowly add the flour. The resulting dough will be very sticky. SUPER sticky. You will definitely need to do some major bowl scraping to get all the dough into the equation.

These cookies are "drop" cookies which means, in theory, that you can just drop dollops of dough onto your cookie sheets. I am a control freak however, and felt the need to at least roughly shape the dough into balls. probably unnecessary but, I just don't like to leave my cookies to chance. I ran out of parchment paper this particular morning (tragedy!) so I had to bake these the old fashioned way on a greased cookie sheet.

They came out fine, but the lack of paper will make the bake-time faster. SO if you find yourself without parchment, err on the side of too short, instead of too long. Too long = burnt bottoms.

The recipe said that you could optionally sprinkle the cookies with cinnamon sugar. Cinnamon is never optional in my book so, of course, I went for it.

Bake at 375 for 8 minutes.

And there you have it! These cookies, in all honesty, are a little weird. I actually wasn't sure that I liked them, so I made some snickerdoodles to go along with the honeydoodles so no one would be disappointed in my lackluster cookies. HOWEVER, after further research (i.e. eating lots of cookies) I've discovered that I really enjoy these subtle, biscuit-like cookies, which go great with tea or coffee. They would be perfect for a brunch-type event, or maybe even on some kind of cheese tray. If you're looking for something different, and not necessarily a super sweet dessert, I would recommend giving these a try. I'm eating one with my decaf tea right now :)

Honeydoodles on the left, snickerdoodles on the right :)