Snickerdoodles

Finally after years of chocolate chip being the favorite family cookie, Snickerdoodles have taken over.  When we want chocolate, we just go to the cupboard and eat a small handful of chocolate chips.  We still really love chocolate chip cookie dough.  The Snickerdoodle is the best baked cookie.  The dough for Snickerdoodles isn't really very good, so more cookies actually end up being baked.  Lactose intolerant people can eat Snickerdoodles with my recipe because they have shortening in them instead of butter.  My recipe came from some ancient book and is a little different than most of the recipes in the current cookbooks.

Wikipedia says this,

Snickerdoodle

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Snickerdoodles

A snickerdoodle is a type of sugar cookie made with butter or oil, sugar, and flour rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient. Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be crisp or soft depending on preference. In modern recipes, the leavening agent is frequently baking powder in contrast with traditional techniques utilizing baking soda and cream of tartar.^[1]
Snickerdoodles are often referred to as "sugar cookies." However, traditional sugar cookies are often rolled in white sugar where as snickerdoodles are rolled in a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon^[2].

[edit] Etymology

The Joy of Cooking claims that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln (lit. "snail noodles")^[3], a kind of pastry. A different author suggests that the word "snicker" comes from the Dutch word snekrad, or the German word Schnecke, which both describe a snail shape.^[4] Yet another hypothesis suggests that the name has no particular meaning or purpose ^[5] and is simply a whimsically named cookie that originated from a New England tradition of fanciful cookie names.^[6] There is also a series of tall tales about a hero named "Snickerdoodle" from the early 1900s which may be related to the name of the cookie.

Poff Snickerdoodles

I found a recipe close to mine on the Internet called "Mrs Sigg's Snickerdoodles"  The difference is I use 1 cup butter flavored Crisco instead of 1/2 butter, 1/2 shortening.  I also put in 1/2 tsp salt and only one teaspoon vanilla. I also put a tiny bit of nutmeg in the sugar cinnamon mixture that I roll the cookies in.  I'm sure Mrs. Sigg had the same original cookbook that I did, and both of us changed the recipe slightly!  I put her recipe with my changes here, so that you have a choice in how you make them.  (The dough tastes better with the butter I'm guessing.)

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
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.