Snickerdoodles

I felt a little proud when I pulled these cookies out of the oven. My mood improved when they were actually soft and palatable. I became ecstatic when I managed to take a good-picture-in-natural-light photo shoot and so now I just have to share them. 

I will be perfectly honest. Snickerdoodles aren't my favorite. I like me the choco-late chip variety myself. (I also find them to be really hard to work with - sticky sticky messes - that turn out reaaaalllly flat and hard or like sugar bomb bread balls, which happens when I try to counter the sticky with a little extra flour. Anyway, back to why I made these...)

So...I'm almost out of butter (this recipe does have shortening in it) and I don't have any real chocolate chips (white don't really count) so what else can you make when the Elders are coming for dinner and you want something to sweeten the deal? Snickerdoodles. And they just so happen to be one of Erik's favorite cookie, which he hardly ever asks for because he knows they are not my cup of tea. So win, win, win, and win. Winners all around!

This particular shortening snickerdoodle recipe has been made once before in my house with limited palatability and thus allows me to give you a little tip. Tip: Shortening has a shelf life and it gets old and starts to smell funny and will make your cookies taste gross. So keep that shortening fresh - like less than a year old, ok? Ok. Now you know.

My taste tester...She approved.

Good.

Try them. (But make sure to share so you don't eat them all yourself, accidentally, even though you don't really like them.)

Snickerdoodles

Yield: 2 dozen (at least)

Dough:
1 stick (8 tbsp) butter, softened to room temperature
1/2 C shortening
1 1/2 C granulated sugar
2 large eggs

2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 tsp salt

Coating:
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 F. (My oven is on the too hot side - something I just discovered after a year of using it. I baked these babies at 350 F for 11 minutes. Just to be honest, true, and real with you!)

With an electric mixer, beat the butter, shortening, and sugar together until light and fluffly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and beat until well mixed.

In a separate bowl mix together the cream of tartar, baking soda, flour, and salt.

Stir the dry ingredient flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture until flour is just incorporated.

In a shallow dish or bowl, combine sugar and cinnamon to coat dough with.

Form into 1.5 inch balls, roll in cinnamon sugar coating and place on a lightly sprayed/silpat-ed/parchment paper-ed (you pick) baking sheet. They will spread a lot. If you want them to be perfectly round, you probably will want to space them farther than a normal cookie with fewer on the sheet. If you don't care that they run into each other then do a normal 3 X 4 placement.

Bake for 9 - 11 minutes until golden brown around the edges and slightly puffed in the middle. They flatten after removing them from the oven. Let sit 2 minutes on baking sheet, then remove them to a cooling rack to finish cooling.


From Mel's Kitchen Cafe - Classic Snickerdoodles