Snickerdoodles (the real kind, nice and soft)

Snickerdoodles, when make correctly, are the best cookie ever. Soft, warm, cinnamin deliciousness. I can’t make it through the mall without buying one, and the homemade version is even better.

I, without shame, stole this recipe from Allrecipes.com

Snickerdoodles

• 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

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
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.
Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Make dough, blah, blah. Roll balls in cinnamon/sugar mix. Lick fingers. Repeat.

Drop on parchment lined cookie sheet.  Space about 2 inches apart. Really, don’t smoosh them all close. Nothing is worse than cookies that mush together.

I make mine a nice ice-cream scoop size and only bake 8 minutes. Seriously, don’t mess around. 8 minutes, that is it. They won’t look done, but they will be.

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Chewy Apple Cookies

Ahhhh. Apple. Cookie. Chewy. Good. These are sort of a gingerbread tasting, spicy cake taste mish-mash of yum and anytime I eat one I feel like a little girl again. That’s always a plus in my book.

The trick for good apple cookies is to saute the apples before adding to dough. Otherwise the apple stays a bit too crisp.
Chewy Apple Cookies

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/3 cups packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 cup chopped apples, plus 2 tbls butter, 1 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Peel and chop apples, saute in butter and cinnamon until soft, let cool. Cream the shortening and brown sugar together. Mix in the egg and milk.  Add the flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, allspice, ground nutmeg. Stir in apples.

Drop spoonfuls of dough onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees  for 8 to 10 minutes.

Saute apples. Try to not eat all the apples before the dough is ready.

Mix dry indredients into wet. No danger of eating the dry ingredients.

Proceed to mix, then sample dough. Taste again to ensure goodness.

Drop onto cookie sheet. I use a plain old ice-cream scoop. Make sure to leave room between balls as these spread a bit.

Peek-a-boo, I see apples. Let cool. Inhale, repeat.

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