Care Package!

When I was little and we would go to visit my grand parents my Mama (pronounced maw-maw) would bake a lot of things with us. From counting out the marshmallows for the Rice Krispy treats to baking a lemon meringue pie, she always let us bake with her.

I learned a lot about cooking in that kitchen. Some valuable baking lessons and definitely some lessons about my family. Most of my favorite memories and two equally important lessons were developed when we would make snickerdoodles.

Lesson 1: Unlike brown sugar, you do not pack flour. This results in very dense and not so sweet snickerdoodles. (I was so proud of myself for packing it so tightly!)

Lesson 2: If everyone wanted to eat cookies, don't tell my father we were making snickerdoodles. That man's fingers are stickier than the dough and he had some pretty sly tricks to distract you while he stole some dough.

If, like my husband, you have never made snickerdoodles, you need to. In fact they are so wonderful and easy you should stop and make them right now. Everyone will love the smell that is coming from your oven and everyone will buzz around with joy after eating them. If you have kids in your kitchen then this is a recipe for you! It is so fun to roll the dough into balls and then spin them in cinnamon and sugar!

I have never made snickerdoodles outside of my grandmother's kitchen. While I lover her cooking and her recipes, this generation is less enthused to use crisco in every item we make.  In fact, I pretty much avoid if at all possible.  I just have issues with it. 'nuf said. SOOO, I found a recipe on food.com that was all butter instead of crisco...I'm in!


Since I baked these at half time of the Kentucky/Baylor game, pictures are only at the end...I told you they were fast!

Here we go:

Cream a cup of butter with 1 1/2 cups sugar and then add two eggs, one at a time.  Here is the optional part: I added in the zest of 1 lemon (finely zested!) and the hubs and I thought it was fantastic! Do what you will :) 

 

In a separate bowl, combine (aka wisk) 2 3/4 cups flour (don't pack it! I promise, it isn't a tasty experiment!) 2 tspns cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon of baking soda (I actually did about 1 1/4 tspn and they were fantastic!) and 1/4tspn salt.  

 

Gradually add your dry ingredients to your wet.  Let the dough chill for about 10 minutes as you preheat the oven to 350 and get out your pans.  In a small bowl combine 3 TBSP sugar with 3 Tspn cinnamon.  

Get out your dough and roll it into about 1 inch balls. I used my TBSP to scoop them out since I had it handy.  Once you have them rolled, throw them into the cinnamon and sugar mixture and roll them around to coat.  I did half of my cookies on parchment paper and half on an ungreased non-stick cookie sheet. Both came out with no issues, just some minor sticking on the plain pan.  Do whatever you prefer :)

Bake these puppies for 10 minutes exactly and remove them from the pan to a cooling rack as soon as they come out of the oven.  Don't worry, the bottom is sturdy and they will cool light and fluffy....and delicious. 

 

Since my dad wasn't around, this made about 3 dozen cookies.  Enough to share :) 

My grandma used to send me these in a care package when I was in college or deployed, so I decided to return the favor.  Love you Mama...these should be on your doorstep tomorrow!