"Girls, Don't Let Your Snickerdoodles Roll"

" A merry heart does good like medicine.." New King James Version

I've had several friends ask me to put my Snickerdoodle recipe on the blog. First I think my title may need an explanation. For any of you who have ever made these cookies before, you know the last step before putting them on the baking sheet is to roll the dough into balls and dip them in cinnamon sugar. If you're not careful the little guys have a tendency to roll around on the cookie sheet as you're putting them into the oven.

Now for the story...........

When I was first married we attended a church in San Diego where the women's group met every Wednesday morning to bake all kinds of cookies, to quilt, and to plan outreaches. We had a standing order from the employees of three local banks for over a hundred dozen cookies every week! But not to fear......our group was led by a precious little old lady who, in my very young and inexperienced eyes, seemed to know everything there was to know about being domestic. If the truth be known, most of us younger ones were rather intimidated by Mrs. Brown! But get the job done she did! From overseeing the quilters, coordinating potlucks and missions programs, to keeping a watchful eye on the dozens of pans of cookies that were baked every week, she seemed to have it all under control. And her favorite mantra to us was always, "Girls, don't let your snickerdoodles roll!".  You see, the recipe calls for the dough to be rolled into walnut size "balls", dipped in the cinnamon sugar, and placed on the cookie sheet. If you get in too big a rush to put the pan in the oven the little cookie dough balls tend to roll around....hence, her warning to all us "young ones"!  At times we found it humorous.....but to this day I remember things I learned from her. At a time in my life when I wasn't even quite sure how "domestic" I wanted to be, Mrs. Brown was a big, albeit intimidating, influence on all of us.

Finally here's the snickerdoodle recipe.....I've always thought snickerdoodle was such a funny word anyway. So on this lovely Sunday afternoon in March, bake yourself up some snickerdoodles, laugh a little, and enjoy a merry heart. It's good for you!

Mrs. Brown's Snickerdoodles

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup shortening

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 1/8 teaspoons cream of tartar

3/4 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons white sugar

4 tablespoons cinnamon

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl cream together the shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar. ( I like to mix the ingredients in my KitchenAid mixer, but it can be done by hand or with a hand mixer). Stir the eggs into the creamed mixture. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture until well blended. In a smaller bowl mix the remaining sugar and cinnamon together.

Now for the fun part. Roll the dough into walnut size balls and place in a the cinnamon sugar mixture until well covered. Place a dozen balls on an ungreased cookie sheet, spacing evenly.

Bake for 8 minutes in the preheated oven. Edges should be slightly brown. TIP: It's very important to take them out before they look really done! They will firm up as they cool.

Remove from cookie sheet and cool on wire racks. I usually get about three dozen cookies out of this recipe. These cookies store best in an air-tight container or bag. If you want to only bake a few at a time this dough will keep in the fridge, covered, for a week or so and you can remove as much as you need at a time. Especially great if you like to eat your cookies warm.

For more delicious Sunday recipes visit Tamy at Three Sides of Crazy and Janet at Our Family Story.