Slice of Life: The Cookie Trials

I wrote about try, my OLW for 2019 in this reflection early in December. But it wasn't until I was thinking about today's post that I realized how easily our OLW can creep into our daily activities. I'm actually closing out 2019 with my own cookie trials by trying new cookie recipes. Every year I bake the same tried-and-true cookies to share with family and friends, but this month I ventured off that path for my own Great Cookie Bake-Off.

I kicked off my cookie trials with a recipe for Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies clipped from a mailing and stashed in my drawer of recipes for years. I've been trying to replicate a favorite double chocolate cookie from The Bryant Corner Cafe for several years and this one comes very close. I took it to a cookie exchange earlier in the month. It's a keeper!

I tried Scrumptious Orange Bites yesterday. This recipe (torn from a 2012 Christmas Cookie magazine) combines dates, orange juice, orange zest, and butterscotch chips all in one delicious cookie. I'll be sharing them with some friends today. Too bad that my blogging buddies all live too far away for a New Year's Eve plate of cookies.

And today's trials? Part of my ongoing quest to replace the shortening with butter in two of my favorite cookies, Snickerdoodles & Molasses Crinkles. I've been trying for some time and somehow the results never match up in taste to my old, tried-and-true recipes with Crisco. I've already had one failed molasses cookie attempt this month. Fingers crossed that today's trials become tomorrow's blue ribbon winners!

And because I know some of you will ask . . . pics of the recipes!