Ms Chef in Seattle

Last night, as dinner was on the stove and with an accompaniment in the oven, I mixed a batch of cookie dough for another experiment in fillings, in high hopes that the result would be the third offering of a peppermint-related cookie trio. There are already two unique and well-proven members of that trio, typically amongst the top choices of family who receive them annually at Christmas. I needed one more since offering a trio choice has been amongst my goals as I’ve developed my recipes over umpteen years.

I’d tried the peppermint cream filling in a couple different cookie “crusts” a few years ago, had not been happy with how they turned out. They leaked or the texture didn’t suit, just weren’t right. But with my latest forays — beyond the normal snickerdoodle — offering a new covering for the filling, I gave it a try after dinner. A bit of red sparkle sugar in the rolling mixture provided a visual difference in case the pink filling didn’t find a way out (and in case there’s more than one kind of snick in a box or tin) and you can see the result. (Most of them remained sealed, but for the photo, some pretty pink.)

They passed my personal test. My daughter wanted the filling to spread out more, like the salted caramel  Snicks’ filling does. Well, I’d made the batter slightly different than for my other snickerdoodles, leaving out the cinnamon, so I made a dozen of the Salted Caramel Filled Plain Snicks, too, but using the remainder of the lovely colored sugar. No sense to waste it. Voila! It’s a filling I knew would spread in its pocket. Thinking that they might not be discernable from their Peppermint Cream Snick cousins, I sprinkled on a bit more cinnamon. Can you tell the difference?

Both types were sent out tonight. The Peppermint Cream Snicks may survive the alpha test. The others already did.

Update: They’ve survived several tests and have been welcomed into the family of Snicks and the peppermint trio.