Not Apple Pie...But All American

the Snicker-doodle

okay, so it may not even be All American...

but that's okay...it's what we ate as we watched the fireworks from our roof...

WARNING Nerd Tangent...

 was curious so I looked it up on Wikipedia...

The Joy of Cooking claims that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln, which means "snail noodles." A different author suggests that the word "snicker" comes from the Dutch word snekrad, or the German word Schnecke, which both describe a snail-like shape. Yet another theory suggests that the name has no particular meaning or purpose and is simply a whimsically named cookie that originated from a New England tradition of fanciful cookie names. There is also a series of tall tales about a hero named "Snickerdoodle" from the early 1900s which may be related to the name of the cookie.

So, since we had Snickerdoodles for the 4th of July I'm going to choose the New England origin and stick with it!

I grew up not really liking sugar cookies or Snickerdoodles...

then I realized as an adult it was because my mom made them for my dad, and my dad thinks they should be thin and crispy...

well, I have know this about the sugar cookies for a good 12 years now...

but only within the last month did I discover that I LOVE the Snickerdoodle!...

I thought they were hard little rocks of a cookie that crumbled more like a biscuit than a cookie...

...not large, chewy, moist cinnamon sugary deliciousness that they were meant to be...

okay, it might also be the recipe...all the recipes that I looked at tell you to make a small 1 inch ball of dough...I went for the 2-3 inch ball of dough...and we have a WINNER...these are going to be a new staple in our home!

Melt in Your Mouth Snickerdoodles

1 cup butter softened

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cream of tarter

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

sugar and cinnamon  for rolling (about 1/4 cup sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon)

In a medium mixing bowl beat butter for 30 sec.  Add 2 cups sugar, baking soda and cream of tater.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl.  Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.  Beat in flour (take your time with the flour and add 1/2 cups at a time).  Cover and chill (at least 1 hour).

Preheat oven to 375.  Combine sugar and cinnamon for rolling.  Shape dough into 2-3 inch balls and roll in sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat.  Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Back for 10-11  minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops begin to crackle. (EDIT...a friend just made these and said she needed to cook hers a little longer...go with look over time.)

Serve with milk or coffee...so very very yummy...also VERY good with Java Chip ice cream!...

might be making some ice cream sandwiches later...

but I will have to make another batch of cookies because this is all that's left

This recipe is exactly what I made, I doubled the one in the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and added more vanilla...and the other major change I made was the size of the dough balls...I more than doubled the size, their recipe said that it would make 36 cookies so doubling should make 72 (I can add!)...when I doubled it but also doubled the size of the cookies I was counting on having the 3 dozen for the one recipe...I only ended up with 2 dozen cookies...so I might be doing a double batch of this recipe and hoping for 4 dozen...