Snickerdoodles

I love Snickerdoodles, those sugar cookies dusted with cinnamon, that are one of my family's favorite cookie. I 've been making them for a long time, following a recipe I found years ago in an old church cookbook. They are melt in your mouth deliciousness, (is there such a word?), especially when baked just enough to be soft and chewy. However, those times that I have over baked them a tad, I found that they are really good when they are crunchy too! I'll take them either way. After the cookies are stirred together, the dough must be refrigerated for about 2 hours, or overnight. When ready to bake, remove the dough from the fridge and roll

into balls. To make the balls uniform in size, I use my tablespoon to scoop the dough, just filling it. Then I roll the dough into small balls between my hands and then roll them into a mixture of sugar and cinnamon and place them on a baking sheet, not crowding them. You must give them room to spread, because as they bake they spread out and puff up and you don't want them to be deformed because of crowding. The Snickerdoodles will appear to be "crinkled" on top and if you want them to be soft and chewy, they will still look a little wet when removed from the oven.

They will flatten out during cooling. Also, they do better if when you take the pan out of the oven, let the cookies rest on the pan a few seconds and then remove them to a wax paper lined pan to cool. Snickerdoodles tend to fall apart when placed on wire cooling racks. So, let's get busy!

Snickerdoodles

In a large bowl, cream together:

1 cup soft butter (or you may use shortening)

1 &1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

In another bowl sift together:

2 &3/4 cup flour

2 teaspoons Cream of Tarter ( found on the spice isle at the market)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt (if using salted butter, use only 1/4 tea. salt

Stir dry ingredients into butter mixture. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill in fridge for at least 2 hours. When ready to bake preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough into balls the size of small walnuts. I use my tablespoon measure to make sure the cookies are similar in size. Roll each ball of dough into cinnamon sugar mixture made with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Place balls about 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet and bake at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes for soft cookies. The Snickerdoodles will still look wet. Remove from oven, let rest on pan for just a few seconds, then remove cookies to waxed paper to cool. Or, you can just eat them warm from the oven. They are so good! What are your favorite cookies to make?