December 9, 2011: Snickerdoodles Recipe

One thing I absolutely adore about the holiday season is that it gives me the license to do baking, lots of baking. I always make fruit breads, pies, a special pastry (one year I made Christmas stollen – man, that was time consuming but yummy), and cookies. Always lots and lots of cookies. Perhaps the favorite cookie I make each year, outside of sugar cookies, is snickerdoodles.

When I make cookies for Christmas, I always turn to my collection of vintage cookbooks – they have THE best recipes as well as really cute pictures. Here’s the one I use to make snickerdoodles.

Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups flour

2 t. cream of tartar

1 t. baking soda

¼ t. salt

1 ½ T sugar

1 ½ T. cinnamon

Cream butter; add one cup sugar gradually. Beat in eggs one at a time. Blend in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Shape into balls using one level teaspoonful of dough; roll in combined sugar and cinnamon. Place two inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 400 degrees about 8 minutes (cookies should not be brown so watch carefully). Makes about 5 dozen.

By the way, it’s the cream of tartar in this recipe that keeps these cookies soft. But they’ll only stay soft a couple days so if you’re making them in advance, pack them in an airtight container and freeze.