A couple weekends ago Nashville got hit with a pretty big snowstorm (for us).  People were totally freaking out, businesses closing left and right, and hibernation set in.  I live in a pretty busy part of town, and pretty much every restaurant was closed (except the Chinese place of course!), even the grocery store across the street was closing early.  Because of the snow, The Boy wasn’t going to come home for his dinner break either.  So without needing to prepare dinner, I spent that time baking these cookies!

I’ve been meaning to bake Snickerdoodles for quite a while.  It’s such a delicious cookie.  It’s not a sugar cookie, but similar; and not overly cinnamon-y.  I’m not sure about you, but my school system growing up served Snickerdoodles on a regular rotation.  I’d always get excited when they appeared on the menu.  After snacking on these the entire snowed-in weekend, I took the rest to work on Monday.  One of my coworkers & I went to the same school system, and he came and gave me two thumbs up for the cookies.  He said they reminded him of all those school lunches!

I had planned on using the recipe from my Martha Stewart Cookies cookbook, until I realized her recipe in the book doesn’t include cream of tarter, which is a traditional ingredient, that gives these cookies a very slight tang.  A quick web search revealed the exact same recipe on the Martha Stewart website, except it had the cream of tarter, and also used half butter and half shortening.  The shortening helps the cookies from spreading too much.  So, that was the recipe I ended up using.  YUM!  These cookies were a great way to “weather the storm”.

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Snickerdoodles

from Martha Stewart

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening
1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine.

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small (1 1/4-ounce) ice-cream scoop to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 5 minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack. Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.

The scene at the local park, a couple hours after the snow began to fall.

My street, Friday night.  On a typical Friday night, the parking lot, the street, and even the bank’s drive up window are all packed with cars at the nearby restaurants.