I have a love/hate relationship with Snickerdoodles.  I adore them.  I worship.  But change one little ingredient, and it’s all I can do to keep from spitting it out.  Violently.

I can’t help myself.  These cookies are just SOOO BAD when they are done wrong, and SOOO GOOD when they are done right.  It’s worth the effort to do it right.  Who am I kidding?  It’s easier to do it right, and much faster. 

What makes a Snickerdoodle wrong?

One word, my friends.  Shortening.

Don’t misunderstand.  Shortening has its place… clogging the drains, sewers, and arteries of the human population.  Save your shortening testimonials, folks.  I can only stand to use it when I have to have a pure white icing or cake.  Otherwise, the taste and texture just kill me. 

They call it shortening for a reason.  You can practically watch the years of your life getting shorter, and shorter…

(I’ll save my rants about shortening and high fructose corn syrup for another day.)

What makes Snickerdoodles (and everything else) right? 

Butter.  Pure, unadulterated butter.  Where shortening is the embarrassing bastard of ingredients, butter is the epitome of graceful baking.

If you want your cookies to tempt, you MUST use butter.  And use it well.

The secret to using butter is the temperature and consistency you begin with.  With pies and biscuits, the butter must be cold and hard – the colder, the better – to create those flaky, perfect crusts and layers when baked.  For a smooth and softly chewy cookie, butter should be brought to room temperature and creamed (whipped, almost) before adding any ingredients. 

I repeat:  Do NOT just start throwing ingredients in the bowl!  Treat your butter like royalty, and your taste buds will thank you.  And your spouse will, too.  And probably your kids, neighbors, PTA, rotary club, bake sale buddies… 

Ahem.

Snickerdoodles have a long and fanciful history.  That is, nobody really knows who came up with them and where they started.  As near as I could figure out with google, the fount of all knowledge, the earliest printed Snickerdoodle recipe made its appearance in 1902 in Iowa.  (courtesy foodtimeline.org)

[1902] “Snickerdoodles -  Three cups of flour, two cups of sugar, one cup of butter, two eggs, two teaspoons of cream of tartar, one teaspoon of soda. Drop in a pan and sprinkle a little sugar and cinnamon over each. Bake in a quck oven. –Mrs. John Montgomery”
—1902 Cook Book: A Collection of Tried Recipes Contributed by Estherville [Iowa] Housewives, Mrs. A.L. Barnum and Mrs. S. I. Delavan editors, (p. 80) 

I personally use a recipe remarkably similar to the Estherville version.  And now I’m going to share it with you.  Click on the picture or Save As to print out a recipe card.

And please. Use butter.