Snickerdoodles

My mom loves snickerdoodles. A few days ago, we were nearly out of chocolate chip cookies (horror of horrors in this house!) and I asked Dad if he'd eat snickerdoodles if I made them instead. He said something to the effect of snickerdoodles posing no temptation to him whatsoever, so, no, he wouldn't eat them. But at the same time, he's been backing off chocolate chips cookies here lately, so I went ahead and made the snickerdoodles. He did eat one that afternoon, but they're not chocolate chips, according to him. Smart guy. I like these a lot, so Mom and I have been the ones eating them.

A long time ago, I posted my snickerdoodle recipe and described it as a sugar cookie with cinnamon, or something to that effect. You know, I don't know what the real definition of a snickerdoodle is...and Heaven knows where the name came from! But it's a great, simple cookie. :) I'm glad whoever came up with it came up with it!

In this recipe, as with all of my cookie recipes, I cook with half butter and half lard. One reason being the cost and availability of our raw butter....I don't want to use all of it in a cookie! I also believe that the lard makes a cookie with a better consistency and texture. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer half butter and half lard to all butter. With that said, I know most folks don't have lard sitting in their fridge (poor folks) so all butter is fine. The cookie will still be delicious. :) Contrary to popular belief, lard does not impart any flavor (porky or otherwise!) to baked goods. Pie crusts are a good example. Lard makes an excellent pie crust, as far as flakiness and texture, with no added flavor at all.

When I made snickerdoodles this time, I just made a half recipe. So these amounts that I'll picture should be doubled for a regular recipe. I wrote the printable with normal amounts.

I used 1/4 cup soft butter and 1/4 cup of lard.

3/4 cups of sugar. I used brown sugar this time because I was out of the cane sugar we usually use. I'd normally use regular sugar, but they turned out really yummy with this brown!

Cream the butter and sugar together, add an egg and some vanilla...

Half of 2 3/4 cups of flour. Hehe...I used a heaping 1 1/4, or somewhere around there!

1/2 teaspoon baking soda...

1 teaspoon cream of tartar...

And about 1/8 teaspoon of salt...

Mix it up well!

Mix 1 tablespoon of sugar ( I did have that much regular sugar!) and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon...

Roll into tablespoon-size balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar mix...

Place 2 inches (or so...) apart on ungreased baking sheets... (ungreased, finish-coming-off, a-bit-rusty baking sheets. This is where I should insert the PayPal "donate" button, correct?)

Bake at 400* for 7-10 minutes. I baked mine for 7 and they were perfect, but I guess if you like a crunchier cookie (ugh) you could go longer. They don't look quite done when you take them out, but they're perfect when they cool.

Eat up!

Printable recipe