“It’s perfect. I’ll see you after the competition and again tomorrow morning.”
Hannah made a move to go back inside, but Ross pulled her into his arms. “Not so fast, wife-to-be. I’m in desperate need of a kiss.”
Hannah just had time for a brief laugh before Ross kissed her and she completely forgot what he’d just said. She also didn’t notice that the afternoon had turned colder and a light snow was beginning to drift down from a sky that had turned from blue to leaden gray. She didn’t notice, or think about a single thing until Ross released her and turned to open the door for her.
“Better go inside,” he told her. “It’s snowing.”
“It is?” Hannah glanced up at the sky and blinked. “When did that happen?”
Ross grinned and gave her a gentle push inside. “Go get warm, Hannah. I’ll see you at the competition tonight.”
Hannah stood there in the warmth of the kitchen for a moment, and then she realized that Michelle was staring at her. “What?” she asked.
“Your hair’s wet. Better go towel it off.”
“Oh. Right.”
“I’m never going to get married unless I look like you do right now.”
Hannah blinked and shook her head to clear it. “You mean with wet hair?”
“No, I mean so much in love that you’re in a daze. I wasn’t sure at the very beginning, but now I am. You got the right guy, Hannah. Nobody you ever dated made you look this way before.”
HONEY DROP COOKIES
DO NOT pre-heat the oven yet. This dough must chill before baking.
1 and ? cups melted butter (3 sticks, 12 ounces, ? pound)
2 cups white (granulated) sugar
? cup honey (I used orange blossom honey)
2 beaten eggs (just whip them up in a glass with a fork)
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
? teaspoon nutmeg (freshly ground is best)
? teaspoon cardamom (if you don’t have it, you can substitute more cinnamon for the cardamom)
4 cups flour (don’t sift it—pack it down in the cup when you measure it)
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? cup white sugar in a small bowl for rolling the dough balls
Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat it on HIGH for 1 minute. Leave the bowl in the microwave for another minute and then check the butter after to see it’s melted. If it’s not, give it more time, in 20-second increments, until it is.
Take the bowl out of the microwave and mix in the white sugar. Mix until it’s all combined.
Add the honey to the bowl and mix it in. Mix until it’s thoroughly incorporated.
Let the butter, sugar, and honey mixture sit on the counter while you get out the eggs.
When the mixture in the bowl is not so hot it’ll cook the eggs, add them to the large bowl and stir them in thoroughly. Be sure to mix until they’re well combined.
Hannah’s 1st Note: Lisa and I use a stand mixer to mix up this cookie dough down at The Cookie Jar. You can do it by hand at home, but using an electric mixer makes it a lot easier.
Sprinkle in the baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Mix until all of the ingredients are well combined.
Add the flour in one-cup increments, mixing after each addition.
Hannah’s 2nd Note: You don’t have to be painstakingly precise when you add the four cups of flour. No one’s going to know if one cup is a little bigger than the next one. Just make sure you mix after each addition of flour.
The dough will be quite stiff after you add the flour. This is exactly as it should be.
Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least two hours. (Overnight is even better.)
When you’re ready to bake, take the cookie dough out of the refrigerator and let it sit, still covered with the plastic wrap, on your kitchen counter. It will need to warm just a bit so that you can work with it.
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F., rack in the middle position.
While your oven is heating to the proper temperature, prepare your cookie sheets. You can either spray them with Pam or another nonstick cooking spray, or line them with parchment paper. (The parchment paper is more expensive, but easier in the long run. If you use it, you can simply pull the paper over to the wire cooling rack, cookies and all.)
Prepare a shallow bowl by filling it with a half cup of white sugar. This is what you’ll use as a coating for the cookie dough balls you’ll roll.
Take off the plastic wrap and roll the cookie dough into walnut-sized balls with your impeccably clean hands. Roll each dough ball in the bowl with the white sugar, one ball at a time, and place it on your prepared cookie sheet, 12 dough balls to a standard-sized sheet.
Press the dough balls down just a little so they won’t roll off when you carry them to the oven.