This month the recipe is Snickerdoodles from good ole' Martha Stewart. Now, I've never made Snickerdoodles from scratch before because.... shortening grosses me out big time. I have no problem eating a cookie made with shortening, but actually scooping the stuff out of a container and into a measuring cup... nasty! Last month I purchased shortening to make my MIL's Coconut Coookies, but I just couldn't bring myself to use it, so I used butter instead (and I wonder why they didn't turn out as good as hers.) I have no issues using 2 sticks of butter in a recipe or 4 cups of sugar, but for some reason shortening just skeeves me out.
Last week when I made Triple Threat Blondies, I made a small step toward overcoming my fear of shortening and used a 1/4 tsp in the topping. :0) Well this week I grew by leaps and bounds and used a 1/2 cup. The good news is, I wasn't tempted to eat the batter! I followed the recipe almost exactly. I used a little more cinnamon than called for and didn't follow the baking directions exactly. (see the red italics below)
Overall these cookies were fab... shortening and all!
Snickerdoodles
Martha Stewart
Makes: 4 Dozen
Ingredients
* 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
* 1/2 cup pure vegetable shortening
* 1 3/4 cups sugar, plus more if needed
* 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
* 2 large eggs
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with Silpat baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.
2. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter, shortening, and 1 1/2 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs, and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine.
3. In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small (1 1/4-ounce) ice-cream scoop to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 5 minutes. Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack. (Any time I try the rotating baking sheets method, my cookies always end up burnt. My 30 year old oven sucks and will burn anything that is lower the second rack in the oven. I just baked these one sheet at a time on the top rack. My baking time was only about 6 min)
Store in an airtight container up to 1 week.
4 comments:
they look fabulous. so glad you joined our group! here's to more empty plates with crumbs!
well it looks like your cookies turned out great. Shortening and all. :)
Well I finally found the answer after going to each blog tonight...6 minutes! ..thx..
Did you know that shortening comes in sticks, like butter?? I just discovered that recently. Much less nasty than the big can o'lard!
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