Snickerdoodle Cookies

I was asked to bake some cookies for a wedding recently, and since it was a little chilly this morning, I thought today would be a good day to turn on the oven.  My husband loves snickerdoodles, so I decided to make some for him and some for the wedding!  

Snickerdoodles

Yield:  4 doz.

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.

In my experience with snicker doodles, I  have found that there are two very important things to remember when making successful,  delicious, soft cookies:

First, to always remember to roll them in the cinnamon sugar BEFORE baking.  They should look like this:

 
The other is to NOT OVER BAKE THEM!  I found out the hard way that snickerdoodles continue to cook as they cool.  Even if they appear soft and underdone when you first make them, take them out when the timer goes off.  They will continue to cook as they cool and you will end up with soft, chewy cookies!  YUM!



I will definitely be making these again.  The extra step of rolling them in cinnamon sugar takes some time, but they are well worth the wait!