Snickerdoodles

I've only made Snickerdoodles 3 times. The first was in 8th grade home economics, my mom even has a copy of my hand written recipe. The second time was last year, when I had to go to the store three or four times between forgetting ingredients and adding the wrong ones, having to start over a few times. Eventually they came out excellent, but talk about frustrating. And the third baked yesterday.

first things first...the goods

I'm used to baking and cooking alone, but I couldn't let my 89 year old grandmother just sit and watch, so I put her to work! And if she keeps up the good job, I'm gonna have to hire her full time.

grandma doing the dirty work

ready for the oven!

For some reason I had a hard time figuring out how many minutes these should be in the oven for. I like my snickerdoodles to be cooked perfectly, they should look slightly undercooked when you pull them out, and the outsides will firm up almost instantly. I haven't baked here enough to really get to know this oven, so I experimented and ended up with a batch of slightly undercooked ones, a batch of perfect ones, and a batch of slightly overcooked ones. Although 3 generations of family tasted each batch with no complaints.

and the tasty results

Snickerdoodles
Printable Recipe
original recipe unknown

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
  
• 1/2 cup shortening
  
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup of mini cinnamon chips
  
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
  
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
   
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla.
   
3. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Mix in cinnamon chips.
   
4. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture.
   
5. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.