Snickerdoodles

Today was our "Us Day" - Andrew and I slept in, went on a hike, ate a pre-St. Patrick's Day Irish dinner, and tonight I made snickerdoodles, one of Andrew's favorite cookies :) Overall it was a great, relaxing, not-productive-in-the-slightest day (although we did do a few dishes!). Our dinner consisted of corned beef with boiled potatoes and cabbage - soooo good! I grew up eating that meal every year for St. Patrick's Day, and this was the first time I've ever made it myself. I would share the recipe with you...but there isn't really one. All you do is boil the meat (1 hour/lb) and put in the potatoes and cabbage about an hour before it is done. Luckily, you can't screw it up so it tasted just as scrumptious as usual. Delicious, traditional Irish meal, check! We have 2 more St. Patrick's Day celebrations lined up next weekend too. I love my Irish heritage!

On to the snickerdoodles. I have found a perfect recipe for these - light & fluffy, slightly crunchy on the edges, cinnamon yumminess.

Snickerdoodles

1/2 cup butter, softened or melted
1/2 cup coconut oil, melted*
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs (room temperature)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla.
3. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt.
4. Freeze dough for ~30 minutes. This makes it easier to handle and you end up with fluffier cookies.
5. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
6. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

*Original recipe calls for shortening, but I prefer the health benefits of coconut oil. I have made it both ways and do not notice a taste/texture difference. (You can read about healthy oils vs. unhealthy oils here.)

*I always take them out right at 8 minutes and put them straight into a tupperware container.

*I have fallen in love with parchment paper and use it basically every time I use my cookie sheet, and it works great for these snickerdoodles too :)

*I have found that putting the cinnamon-sugar mixture in a ziploc bag is the easiest way to coat the dough balls.

(Click here to view original recipe.)

In other news, I'm seriously loving the Esther study that is going on at Time Warp Wife. You should probably check it out. The only qualm I have with it is that I have to wait for the next chapter's study notes to come out! I love it so much I just want to keep reading and digging deeper. It has also lead me to realize that Esther is a  really lovely, strong and striking name, and Andrew thinks so too. So we are tucking it away for later when we start thinking about babies :)

♥Shannon