I spent several hours in the kitchen baking this morning, after which I played a lazy-bug: watching television, reading a book and generally hibernating for the rest of the afternoon. The good news is I worked offline the last three days to get Shenanchie’s Kitchen ready for next week’s update. The bad news is I’m almost numb with “computer eyes” and a slow but steady headache.

 

I made a quick batch of blueberry muffins this morning, followed by a strange recipe initiated only because I had some leftover cottage cheese in my refrigerator:

Cottage Cheese Crinkles

¾ C margarine

1¾ C sugar

2 eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

1 C small-curd cottage cheese

2¾ C flour

½ C dried cocoa mix

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. baking soda

1 C flaked coconut

Powdered sugar

 

In a bowl, cream margarine and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs; beat well. Stir in vanilla and cottage cheese. Sift the dry ingredients; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in coconut. Refrigerate dough for several hours. Shape into 1" balls and roll in powdered sugar. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 375° for ten to twelve minutes.

Note: I used butter instead of margarine as I had none; I reduced the sugar to one cup and eliminated the flaked coconut because I didn’t have any in my cupboard. During the mixing process, I also added a bit of milk as the dough seemed dry – almost like trying to mix wet cement. And forget trying to mash the cottage cheese curds with an electric mixer – they simply refused to go away, but this did little to detract from the flavor of the “crinkles” in the long run.

 

The original recipe comes from Susan Hebner, an employee at Spokane Community College (where I used to work part-time).

 

Even though the crinkle batter is rolled out like a meatball at first, during cooking the dough flattens somewhat to resemble a cookie. They were actually quite good, and would probably also do well with chopped walnuts or some sort of sweet chip – chocolate or peanut butter. The crinkles are very tasty with a cup of coffee, as my grubby little fingers will attest.