Snickerdoodles

This might be one of the first cookie recipes I made successfully. The recipe comes from All Recipes and has received thousands of rave reviews over the years. Most of ya'll already know that baking is not my strong suit. The measuring and precision just takes all of the fun out of being in the kitchen for me. The results of baking though are often worth it and these cookies are a prime example. Chris loves these and they've received many rave reviews from friends as well. I'll never forget taking these in a cute tin to a Christmas party a few years ago when I told the hostess, "You can either put these out for the party or stash them away for yourself." She kept them for herself and admitted to me later that most of them were consumed late-night after the party. Hope you enjoy these too!

Time: 1 1/2 hours
Serves: 20? makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients

• 1 stick or 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 TBSP white sugar
• 3 TBSP ground cinnamon

Prep

1. Preheat your oven to 400°.
2. Soften your butter. If you have time, you can leave it out on the counter for several hours. If you always forget to do that, like me, you can soften in the microwave. Just put the whole, wrapped stick of butter in for 5 seconds. Then, flip it over and cook for 5 more seconds. Repeat this 4-5 times until your stick of butter is soft but not melted.
3. Add your stick of softened butter, 1/2 cup of shortening, 1 1/2cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla to a mixing bowl. If you have an electric mixer, use that. Mix on low speed for a few minutes until the butter and sugar are well combined and look a bit fluffy.

4. Add in your 2 3/4 cup of flour, 2 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp salt and mix together well until a dough is formed.
5. Mix your 3 TBSP each of sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
6. Shape your dough into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball through your cinnamon-sugar and place them 2 inches apart on your prepared baking sheets.

Cook

1. Bake the cookies, 1 sheet at a time until they're just barely set. I usually cook mine about 6 minutes but the original recipe says 8-10 minutes. If you like a soft snickerdoodle, check them after 5 minutes and if you like them crisp, cook for 8-10 minutes. Here is a batch of mine after they came out.

2. Let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the baking sheet, then use a spatula to transfer them to cooling racks to cool completely.