Traveling to Texas -- The Cookies Begin

After our trip to Sonic, we headed off to the ranch. More like a ranch development with golf and no horses, but I have seen coyotes out here. The folks moved here after retiring though mom has taken on work as a professor at a local college.

I realized I left something out of the Sonic entry that is worth mentioning. For some reason, they occasionally show Sonic commercials on DC stations. Why? As far as I can tell the nearest Sonic is 108 miles away. I love Sonic, but not that much.

We arrived to a house full of Christmas. Holly and ornaments over the doors, toy soldiers, my mom’s famous tree, and food everywhere. We were greeted with Chocolate Crinkles and Mini Raspberry Empa-turnovers

This was my first encounter with Chocolate Crinkles. It seems to be a fairly popular recipe judging from the Google results, but I had not had these. I liked that they weren’t as sweet as our other holiday fare.

Chocolate Crinkles

2 C sugar
½ C vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons vanilla
4 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
4 eggs
2 C flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 C powdered sugar

Mix sugar, oil, vanilla and chocolate in large bowl. Stir in eggs one at a time. Stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Cover and refrigerate 3 hours.

Heat oven to 350. Grease cookie sheet. Drop by teaspoonfuls into powdered sugar. Roll in sugar to coat. Shape dough into balls. Place about 2 inches apart.

Bakes 10-12 minutes or until no indention remains when touched. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Raspberry Turnovers

1 C flour
½ C butter
1 tsp finely grated orange peel
1/8 tsp salt
1 package cream cheese, softened
¼ C raspberry preserves
Orange glaze (see below)

Mix flour, butter, orange peel, salt, cream cheese. Cover and refrigerate one hour. Heat oven to 375. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into 2 inch circles.

Spoon about ¼ tsp preserves onto half of each circle w. Moisten edge on half of each circle with water. Fold dough over preserves. Press edges with fork to seal. Place one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake 8-10 minutes or until edges are light brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely. Drizzle with glaze.

Orange Glaze

½ C powdered sugar
½ tsp finely grated orange peel
2 – 3 tsp orange juice
Mix all ingredients until smooth and thin enough to drizzle