I know, I know, this is not a “mom blog”.  But this little cookie date was too much wonderfulness not to share with all of you.  Below meet Hadley, my beyond dear friends adorable little lady.  We had a plan to head to the park but the weather was pure gloom so we made a cookie date out of it instead.   I think all were happy about the decision…including the mothers who have ingested 98.7% of the results.  I was going for a take on an animal cracker but calling these a cracker would be selling them far too short.  They are so simple tasting but so addictive; the hint of vanilla and spice are perfect and that tiny bit of salt hits you right at the end.  The plan was to make these into number shapes but we were working with two toddlers.  Who both liked stars.  Clearly the stars won, but any shape cookie cutters would do.  Such a fun treat.

The method is as simple as it gets.  Measuring the ingredients is the most difficult part

And cutting out the shapes is the perfect job for the kiddos.  Look at that teamwork

Tasting their blood, sweat and tears

Taste test approved.  They were so good high fives were given

Vanilla Spice Cookies

adapted from this recipe

note:  I chose to use gluten free flour in this recipe  but any all purpose flour would do.  Also, butter can be substituted for the coconut oil, so you would be using 1/4 cup total butter.  If you are using coconut oil you can zap it in the microwave for a couple seconds to melt it.

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups Gluten Free Flour (xanthan gum included)

1/2 Cup Oats

1 Teaspoon Baking Powder

1/2 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

1/4 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1/2 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Melted Coconut Oil

4 Tablespoons Chilled Butter, cut into cubes

1 Teaspoon Vanilla

1 Large Egg

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.  Add flour, oats, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar to the food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine.  Add butter and pulse until it is broken up into little pieces, about 10 pulses.  Add coconut oil, butter, vanilla and egg and pulse until a dough ball has formed.  Remove dough from processor, pat into a firm ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes.  Remove from wrap, place on a floured surface and roll out until dough is about 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out shapes, place on a greased cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes or until bottoms are just golden.  Makes 45-55 cookies.

Hadley thanking Georgia for the fun morning.  And baby Will wondering how he got screwed out of the cookie deal

Two words.  Heart Melting.  xo