Snickerdoodles

For the past four years that I've worked in a restaurant, I've had a "Friday tradition" of bringing some sort of treats to work. It started out with cookies--easy to pick up and eat quickly--but it's branched out to include brownies, cheesecake, cupcakes, and muffins. But cookies are still the staple, and I've been waiting for a day that feels like fall to make one of my favorite fall cookies, snickerdoodles.

These cookies taste like soft sugar cookies but are rolled in a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and they puff up so that they are soft in the center and crisp around the edges. Most snickerdoodle recipes call for cream of tartar, which I don't normally have on hand, but I found out you can substitute lemon juice or vinegar for cream of tartar. I went with lemon juice, but the cookies still have a traditional flavor and don't taste at all lemony.

Cookies at work make things so much less . . . stressful. And snickerdoodles definitely make a rainy, cool day much better.

Snickerdoodles:

½ cup butter, softened
½ cup shortening
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 ¾ cups flour
2 teaspoons lemon juice (or cream of tartar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ tsp salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Place eggs in a bowl of warm water to bring them up to room temperature. Cream butter, shortening, and sugar.
3. Add eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice. Mix well.
4. Beat in the flour, baking soda, and salt.
5. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.
6. Shape dough into small balls and roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
7. Place balls of dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for about 8 minutes.

Recipe adapted from All Recipes