Snickerdoodle Cookies

I had a real need to make cookies this weekend.  It had been too long since the house smelled like baking, and I also needed to bring something to a party where little kids would be present, so cookies were an obvious choice.  I wanted something that smelled like fall, with cinnamon and sugar, and naturally though of Snickerdoodles.  If you are not familiar with these, they are basically sugar cookies that are rolled in cinnamon and sugar before baking.  They originated in 19th century New England, but the name is a mystery.

For a printer-friendly copy of this recipe, click here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KYdSZ9DKIpMH_9d5JfDTx-bC8AKlKvroV8EjVsBRdDU/edit?hl=en_US

Ingredients:

1 stick unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup Crisco
1 1/2 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup sugar, divided
2 tbsp cinnamon
2 large eggs
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp cream of tartar (from the spice section of the grocery store)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt

Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees.  These cookies don't take too long to assemble so it is good to go ahead and get that going first.

First, you are going to put your butter, Crisco, and 1 1/2 cups of the sugar into a big bowl.  If you have a stand mixer, now is the time to dust it off.  Beat it until it is light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.

Next, add your eggs and beat them in.  Now the dry ingredients: the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.  You guessed it -- beat again.  In case you are wondering, the cream of tartar is added to keep the sugar molecules from melting then recrystalizing, resulting in a grainy cookie.  It is commonly used in meringues because it also helps stabilize egg whites when you whip them up.

I told you these were easy.  I swear, a monkey could make these cookies.

Now comes the fun part.  Scoop out about a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball.  Combine the 1/4 cup of sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl (I used a cereal bowl), and drop your cookie ball on in.  Cannonball!

Roll it all around in the cinnamon sugar until it is completely coated.

Yum!  Now put those little balls of goodness onto an ungreased baking sheet, giving them some room between because they will spread.  You can tell that they are going to spread out by the fact that this recipe has so much butter -- when it heats up, it melts, and the whole cookie will slide out with it.  That's why we don't grease the cookie sheet here.  If you did grease it, heaven help you.  Your cookies would be 3 feet across and really thin.

Slide them into that warm oven and bake for about 10-14 minutes.  They are done when they are cracked and the center is set, so wiggle the pan a bit and look for that jiggle.

All done!  The one recipe made about 3 dozen cookies for me (it would have made a few more, but I was kind of grazing on the dough as I was rolling them into balls).  These were very popular, a little chewy, and the spiciness of the cinnamon was a great compliment to the crisp fall weather.  Just don't eat them all at once, or that cookie jiggle will be around your own middle.