It stopped me in my tracks. It had the perfect amount of crunch to it, but was still chewy in the center. It was a bit sweet and packed with cinnamon flavor. I immediately started being the annoying food blogger – asking everyone I bumped into if they knew who made those snickerdoodles. Eventually, I found the maker, Betsy’s Aunt, and she was kind enough to give me the recipe to share with all of you.

Thanks Aunt Judy.

Crispy and chewy at the same time!

I made this for the Food Blog Spooktacular Bake Sale last weekend and they sold out pretty quickly I think, so thanks to everyone who purchased them if you are reading!

Aunt Judy's Snickerdoodles

Yield: 3 dozen.

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 Cup (208 g.) soft shortening (Aunt Judy uses the butter flavored variety, I used regular)
1 1/2 (337 g.) Cups sugar
2 eggs
2 (230 g.) Cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 Teaspoons cream of tartar
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1/2 Teaspoon salt

For coating the cookies:
1/4 Cup sugar
4 Teaspoons cinnamon

Helpful Equipment:
Kitchen Scale

Directions:

1) Mix shortening and sugar together with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer. Cream the sugar into the shortening until it’s combined well and is a light consistency. Then add your eggs, one at a time.

2) Add all dry ingredients to the batter and mix together lightly.

3) Chill batter for at least 30 minutes. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

4) In a large plastic bag, combine cinnamon and sugar topping and shake it together good to combine. Then take about a Tablespoon amount of cookie dough and roll it into a ball between your hands. Drop 3 or 4 of these into your plastic bag and give it a good shake to evenly coat the balls.

5) Lay 6 – 8 balls out on an ungreased baking sheet.

6) Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

7) After a minute or two out of the oven, transfer each cookie to a wire rack to cool completely (approximately 15 minutes).

Pretty basic stuff.

The ingredients for these cookies are pretty straightforward. There is some debate whether butter or shortening works better for snickerdoodles. After trying these, I’m firmly in the shortening camp. I think butter makes them a bit crispier and shortening makes them chewy on the inside but crispy on the outside which, to me, equals delicious.

So, for once, I put away my butter dish. Also, you’ll need some of this stuff, which is an ingredient that I don’t use often but can be found in your spice aisle.

For chemistry nerds: Potassium Bitartrate

Cream of Tartar is basically a stabilizer. Without it, I think your cookies would kind of melt all over the place as they baked.

Making the batter

To start this recipe, mix your shortening and sugar together with a hand mixer or in a stand mixer. Like you would with butter, cream the sugar into the shortening until it’s combined well and is a light consistency. Then add your eggs, one at a time.

I included weights in the recipe because I found it easier to just zero out my bowl on my scale and then add each ingredient until I hit the right weight number. Especially with shortening, it can be hard to know if your cup is actually a cup or not due to air bubbles and stuff. A scale takes out the guess work and is a good investment.

I made a lot of snickerdoodles this day.

Next, add all your dry ingredients to the batter and mix together lightly. I sifted my flour to make sure there were not any lumps, but Aunt Judy said that she never sifts hers and, trust me, they were just fine.

A very strange batter. Almost like Play-Doh

Chill it out

Chill your batter for at least 30 minutes. This will make it much easier to work with. When you are about ready to bake the cookies, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Making the cookies

In a large plastic bag, combine your cinnamon and sugar topping and shake it together good to combine. Then take about a Tablespoon amount of cookie dough and roll it into a ball between your hands. Drop 3 or 4 of these into your plastic bag and give it a good shake to evenly coat the balls.

Coated in flavor

Lay these out on an ungreased baking sheet. I did 8 per sheet because I had a lot of cookies to make. It was a pretty tight fit though once they expanded. You may want to just do 6 per sheet if you have the time.

An army of snickerdoodles.

Baking the cookies

Bake these at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes. I took mine out at about 9 minutes. They will look pretty flimsy when they come out of the oven and be puffed up. As they cool, they will flatten and harden a bit.

If you’re cookies are touching you can use a spatula to separate them.

Cookies kissing.

After a minute or two out of the oven, you can transfer each cookie to a wire rack to cool completely. The cookies are so thin, it will only take 15 minutes or so for them to cool completely.

Since I was asking people to actually pay money for these, I decided to try my hand at wrapping up little bundles of cookies. It was kind of a project, but they turned out nice I think… for a dude who never does craft projects anyway.

If you are going to wrap them, just make sure the cookies are completely cooled before you do!

My attempt to be crafty.

If only my friends from college could see me now… What’d you do last weekend Nick? Hit any good bars?

Nah… wrapped up about 2 dozen bundles of snickerdoodles with matching ribbons. You know how I roll.

So I made these for breakfast:

You can just barely see the figginess.

There are only two real steps to this recipe that make it unique: making the fig jam and making the biscuits. In my opinion you have to make the biscuits from scratch. They aren’t that hard and they really make the sandwich.

The fig jam you could buy. But I’ve never really made jam before so I took this as an opportunity.

Black Mission Fig Jam (from BA)
(45 minutes)
- 1/2 pound mission figs (like six)
- 1.5 cups water
- 2 Tablespoons light molasses (this is very important. The LIGHT part I mean. I used dark and it was a bit too molassesy. I couldn’t find light molasses though. Maybe honey? Or maybe use just 1 Tablespoon of dark molasses)
- 3/4 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 3/4 Teaspoon sugar
- Fresh ground pepper
- Pinch of salt

You literally put all this stuff in a pot and let it reduce down for 45 minutes.

Start and finish:

45 minutes and a few simple ingredients.

Now let’s talk biscuits. These biscuits are a bit heartier than you might be used to. You want that though because they have to hold up to ham, cheese, and fig preserve. A lame store bought biscuit would fall apart.

Buttermilk Biscuits (also form BA)
(Makes 8 if you are me. 12 if you are Bon Appétit.
- 2.5 cups all purpose flour
- 1.5 Tablespoons baking powder
- 1.5 Teaspoons salt (kosher is best)
- 1.5 Teaspoons sugar
- 3 Tablespoons shortening
- 1 1/4 cups buttermilk
- 3 Tablespoons very thinly sliced, and frozen, butter

Start with your first four ingredients and mix them up well. Then use your hands to pinch in the shortening. You want it evenly distributed in small pea-sized globs.

The dry stuff.

The next step is the tricky part and the part I had never done before. The recipe calls for using a French preparation (so they claim, but I’m not French so who knows). You roll the dough out in a rectangle until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

Then place the chilled butter all over the dough, and fold it over in thirds. So you want a layer of dough, a layer of butter, a layer of dough, a layer of butter, and then a layer of dough.

Don’t press down on this dough too much. You want it thick and light.

Does this make sense?

Once you have this part done you need to actually make the biscuits. This is easy if you have a biscuit cutter or even a freakin’ cookie cutter. I had none of these.

I got a small, sharp paring knife and made biscuits. Easy breezy. Then brush them with a bit of buttermilk.

Ready to be baked.

Bake these for 20 minutes at 425. You’ll end up with these beauties.

DUDE.

Now this gets easy. Cut a few of these in half. Spread some butter on one half and some fig jam on the other. Pile on some ham and cheddar cheese. Lots of cheddar cheese.

Overboard on cheese? Impossible

Stick them under the broiler for a few minutes until the cheese is bubbly and the biscuits browned.

Taste tester had one. I had two because I'm a fatty.

These are a great way to start the day. You just can’t go wrong. You could change up the cheeses and ham with tons of stuff I’m sure. These are like a McMuffin on a strong dose of awesome.

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