Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are a more recent discovery for me. I never had one as a kid and I’m not sure if it’s because they’re not very common in Canada (or are they? They’re not common to me..) or because they have no chocolate in them. I always picked the cookies with chocolate as a kid.

To be honest, I think I liked normal chocolate chip cookies better than chocolate chocolate chip cookies when I was little, but always picked the latter because the idea of ever turning down an opportunity for MORE chocolate was an idea of PURE MADNESS as far as I was concerned.

I honestly don’t remember ever hearing about “snickerdoodles” until an episode of Veronica Mars (INCREDIBLE show if you’re not familiar!) where the main character bakes some for her best friend.

I’m pretty sure that was my first encounter with them because I distinctly remembering turning to Trevor and asking, “What’s a snickerdoodle, other than a funny word?”

“You don’t know?”

He described a cinnamon sugar covered cookie that wasn’t all that sweet aside from it’s sweetly spiced coating.

I do love cinnamon sugar, but I was skeptical about the “wasn’t all that sweet”.

My skepticism continued when I looked up recipes of what this little cookie was composed of. Cream of tartar? Shortening? What is this, a lemon meringue pie?

Clearly, I had to make them to see what they were all about.

These are not cookies you crave because of oozing melted chocolate. Or because of rich butteryness or a gooey caramel filling. But somehow, you still end up eating 5 of them.

As a dessert eater who typically goes for “the richer, the better”, I can’t tell you what exactly is with these cookies. But I can tell you I ate 6 of them while at work yesterday.

I may have eaten 2 of them for breakfast. With a cup of hot tea with sugar and milk.

Oh man… I could really go for that combo right now.

Alas, they are all gone, and all I have left of them is a clear plastic container, lightly dusted with the remainders of cinnamon sugar.

“Snickerdoodle”. Not just a funny word. True story.

Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Ingredients

• 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
• 5 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar until fluffy, approx. 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each, then blend in the vanilla.
3. Whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add to wet mixture and blend in.
4. Mix the 5 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon in a small ziploc bag.
5. Shape a heaping tablespoonful of dough into ball and place it into the cinnamon sugar bag. Shake the bag and roll the dough around until completely coated. Repeat and place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Makes approx. 4 dozen cookies

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