Snickerdoodles for Friends and Family

Have you ever noticed how many people have their birthdays between the end of December and the beginning of April? It seems like during that period you have a birthday party to attend every weekend, yet, come summer, there is the sparse, perhaps once a month birthday. I feel bad for the people at the end of the birthday clump, for they receive less attention, for by that point, people are bored of birthdays. I admit that I am partially guilty of this. For my group of friends born during the clump of bdays, the only ones I baked for were the boy and the roomie. That's it. Now that it's summer and celebrations are few and far between, I am baking for all the birthdays I see. First was the new room mate's at the begining of the summer (caramel chocolate chip brownies) and last night it was for the boy's room mate/my friend. For him I made snickerdoodles.

I was inspired by taste and tell's post titled "quite possibly the best cookies I have ever made." I wouldn't give them that much credit, but they were super yummy.
The recipe made 39 cookies. 39!! That's a lot of cookies!! So I made up a bag of about a dozen to give to the birthday boy, then I fed my room mates and the boy, then I took them home and gave them to the family during dinner! I still have a lot of cookies!! If we don't finish them today, I will take them to work tomorrow and either I or my coworkers will take care of the rest. Just be warned, 39 decently sized cookies (I used a small ice cream scoop to make my balls of dough, so it isn't like these are small cookies).Problems and tips for next time. Because I rolled the whole cookie in cinnamon sugar, the bottom (which also had sugar on it) became like really burnt caramel on some of the cookies. They still taste great and feel fine, but it isn't pretty. I think next time I will only put cinnamon sugar on the top and sides, but may put some into the dough to compensate for the loss of flavor. Just a tip, they are so much easier to get off the tray if you wait a minute until they cool a tad to pick them up. I tried to almost immediately use a spatula to remove a few, but quickly learned that neither the spatula nor the rush was best. Otherwise they are great cookies, will definitely make them again (would be perfect for potlucks as they are super easy and very cute and yummy).

Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles
from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 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

DIRECTIONS

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. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
3. Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets. (I say wait a minute)