Chocolate Chunkers, Snickerdoodles and a Thank You Card

For my first month as a member of Operation Baking GALS, I got paired up with Susan from She's Becoming DoughMessTic, who is actually the brainchild of this great event! We are baking for Christopher Handy, who currently has a lot of young guys reporting to him, so in baking for him, we were also sending a touch of home to a lot of youngsters that are bravely defending our freedoms. If Christopher or his guys stumble upon this blog, THANK YOU AGAIN for your service - I sincerely appreciate all that you do!

So what did I make and bake? Well of course I couldn't let the package ship out without a card. I wanted it to be simple, yet represent a little bit about me, so here's what I came up with...



This could very well be the fastest card I've ever put together! And I liked the outcome a lot. But the guys really aren't going to care too much about a card, so on to the good stuff... I had a lot of chocolate in my freezer, and I wanted needed to get it out of the house! I was looking through Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan, probably my favorite cookbook for sweets now, and happened upon Chocolate Chunksters. I will say that when I was scooping out these cookies, I was a little leary that they would stick together and actually bake into a non-crumbly mess. And then when they first came out of the oven, I thought that they might be TOO chocolatey and would melt into a blob before they ever made it over to the troops. I'm crossing my fingers on that one still! But the day I was packing them up, they seemed more like a chocolate base cookie with lots of peanuts in them. I'm hoping that they survive, and if they don't, then I'm hoping that someone likes a blob of chocolate and peanuts!



In addition to these, I thought I would make the classic Snickerdoodles - I knew they would make it there without melting, and who doesn't like the simple goodness of a light cookie with a little cinnamon sugar on top?!?! I got the recipe from Jayne of The Barefoot Kitchen Witch (she shipped these in her Operation Baking GALS package too!) Of course I taste-tested them before sending, and they came out perfect! I hope the guys enjoy these as well...

Before:



And after:



Thanks so much to Susan for putting this together! I look forward to baking again for the troops next month - I've already got the cookies I want to send in mind! :o)

God Bless!