Well, I’m now closer to 30 than I am to 20. At first, I was distraught over this realization. Looking back on it, though, 26 is off to a pretty dang good start. I got to celebrate with my family over the weekend and then the actual day of my birthday was fabulous. In fact, my 25th birthday sucked in comparison.

 

This birthday was pretty great.

• I had a good day at work (have I mentioned I love my job?)
• Went for a nice run with Mike (instead of going out for drinks – how grown-up of me!)
• Went to Takumi for a sushi dinner (totally amazing)
• Annnnnd best of all – I was surprised with a dairy-free cheesecake by Mike. I melt a little every time I think about that cheesecake. Excuse the cell phone pic, but it’s the best I can do at the moment!

A little background: I’ve recently cut dairy out of my diet because I’ve been developing some not-so-fun reactions to it. I’m really struggling because I’m a dairy-lovin’ gal. Cheese, Greek yogurt, milk, cheese, cottage cheese, ice cream, cheese… you name it. After all, I do live in Wisconsin! Going cold turkey on dairy was hard. It’s still hard…

That delicious dairy-free cheesecake with raspberry sauce made everything better, though. It was so good – I still can’t believe that it was dairy free! I’m going to get him to remake it someday so I can blog about it. Yummmm.

So, while I don’t have the cheesecake recipe to share with you today, I do have some snickerdoodles! These cookies were one of three types of cookies that I brought in to work for my birthday treat. All three were delicious, but these turned out the prettiest. I don’t know about you, but I definitely “eat” with my eyes first. I’ll beautify the other two cookies and get those recipes up as soon as possible. Promise 🙂

Soft & Chewy Snickerdoodles
makes 2 dozen cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

for rolling:
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Fit a stand mixer with a paddle attachment or use a hand mixer to beat butter until smooth, about 1 minute. Add in sugar and cream until light and fluffy. Mix in egg and vanilla until well combined, scraping down the sides as needed.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. With the mixer on low speed, slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined.
4. Combine 2 tablespoons sugar with 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon for the topping.
5. Roll dough into 1-inch balls and roll in the prepared cinnamon-sugar mixture.
6. Place cookies on prepared cookie sheet 2 inches apart and bake for 10 – 12 minutes, or until puffy and soft. Let cookies cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.

slightly adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction