By Cody and Jessica are buying a house. The news came at Wednesday dinner — Cody sat at my table and said, "We put in an offer." A house. In Broken Arrow. Near Mama. A three-bedroom with a yard, which means my brother — who lived in a jail cell, a halfway house, and a studio apartment with a mattress on the floor — is buying a three-bedroom house with a yard for his two children. The trajectory of Cody Moreland's life, plotted on a graph, would look like a hockey stick: flat at the bottom for years and then, suddenly, sharply, beautifully upward.
He asked me to help with the kitchen. "I want to stock it right," he said. "Like you stocked mine at the studio. But better." I said, "I'll make you a list." He said, "Make me more than a list. Make me a kit." So I'm making a kitchen kit: pots, pans, utensils, spices, a cast iron skillet (not from Goodwill this time — new, from Lodge, because Cody's kitchen deserves a new beginning). Index cards with recipes, taped inside the cabinet door, same as the ones I put in his studio apartment seven years ago. The same handwriting. The same recipes. Different kitchen. Different Cody. Same love.
Jessica is pregnant with number three. Wait — no, she's not. I'm getting ahead of myself. She's not pregnant. She just looks happy in a way that makes you think something good is coming, but the something good is the house, not a baby. The house is enough good for now. The house is always enough good.
When I sat down to write Cody’s index cards — the ones that will live taped inside his cabinet door in that three-bedroom house in Broken Arrow — I started where I always start: something he can make on a Sunday afternoon with his kids, with ingredients he’ll already have once I stock his pantry right. These snickerdoodle cookie bars were on the card I gave him seven years ago for the studio apartment, and they’re going on the new card too, because some recipes aren’t just recipes — they’re the proof that you belong in a kitchen, and Cody Moreland belongs in that kitchen.
The Best Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 25 min | Total Time: 40 min | Servings: 24 bars
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan or line it with parchment paper.
- Mix the dry ingredients. Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream the butter and sugar. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter with 1 1/4 cups of the sugar until light and fluffy, about 2–3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then mix in the vanilla.
- Combine. Gradually stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture until a soft dough forms. Spread the dough evenly into the prepared pan.
- Make the cinnamon topping. In a small bowl, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon. Sprinkle evenly over the top of the dough.
- Bake. Bake for 23–26 minutes, until the edges are lightly golden and the center is just set. Do not overbake — they firm up as they cool.
- Cool and cut. Let bars cool completely in the pan before cutting into 24 squares.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 178 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 25g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 85mg