I'm a bit embarrassed to post desserts two weeks in a row, having professed no serious interest in this category of food. However, when you have promised snacks to a class of feisty improv-ers as a salute to a session well played, cookies and their relatives are the only things that pack up nicely and behave.

Bored of chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin which, if I had made them would have been nothing more than the back of the package, I wanted something more fun and whimsical. A friend recently made Snickerdoodles and I’ve been thinking of them ever since. All I could remember was their role in a period of my childhood when I ate nothing without cinnamon and sugar. At home we had a separate shaker to host these two fine ingredients. Toast was the most common vehicle for enjoyment, but as a seven-year-old I extended the privalege to waffles, untoasted bread (sugar sandwich), and my favorite, a buttered flour tortilla (Mexican sugar sandwich).

This may be a suitable choice when the only thing greater in the world is mixing shampoo bottles in the bath and wearing socks with lace on them, but I like to think my taste and sensibility has matured since that time and I must therefore, confine cinnamon and sugar to the limited scope of the cookie. The Joy of Cooking claims the name “Snickerdoodle” came from a mispronunciation of the German word Schneckennudeln, meaning snail noodles, (does anyone else get an image of a lederhosen-clad Fraulein baking Schneckennudeln in her Bavarian Küche?) German or not these are the finest of all sugar cookies, lightly spiced and doughy with a slightly crunchy exterior.

I accompanied the Snickerdoodles with Coco Choco Clusters to offer the other end of the spectrum in portable desserts. The recipe comes from 101cookbooks, one of my favorite food blogs and is an inviting resource for vegetarians and vegans. The clusters are an absolute cinch with only two necessary ingredients (coconut and chocolate) but a few others that make them delicious (like salt sprinkled on top).

SNICKERDOODLES (makes 18-20)

• 1 3/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• generous pinch salt
• generous pinch cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

AND

(For the sugar coating)

• 2 tbs sugar
• generous pinch of cinnamon

Combine dry ingredients, set aside. Cream butter and sugar, once fluffy add egg and vanilla, beat until well mixed. Slowly add dry ingredients until combined. After the dough comes together let it “rest” in the fridge for 45-60 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Remove dough from fridge and form balls of about 1 tbs of dough. Roll the balls in the cinnamon/sugar mix and place on baking sheet. Give each ball of dough a bit of a squish to flatten. Bake 10-12 minutes until slightly cracked, then transfer to cooling rack.