Snickerdoodles

Until yesterday I was still eating my mom's birthday cake.  So I've not needed to bake anything and especially haven't felt like baking since it's been in the 90's the past few weeks.  My kitchen is miserable in the summertime.  The afternoon sun comes through the window and my cafe curtains aren't much defense to the heat.  There is only one air conditioning unit in my apartment and it's located as far away from the kitchen as possible.  It does well cooling the bedrooms and living room but the air rarely makes it to the kitchen.  

On top of this, my oven is ancient.  It works fabulously but it's old.  I'm not really sure how old exactly but I'd guess the 1980's or so.  (Well, that's the same age range as me but for an oven that is old right?)  An oldie but a goodie, except for one thing.  I've noticed this summer how much heat it puts out when it's on.  Even after I turn it off, I can still feel heat coming off of it an hour later.  So needless to say, I've used the oven as little as possible this summer, especially lately.  About two weeks ago I discovered that I could remove the knobs to turn the burners and oven on and did so to do some heavy duty cleaning.  Then on Monday I went to make some spaghetti for dinner and realized the knobs were still off.  I hadn't used the oven or the stove in about 2 weeks!  That is kinda ridiculous.  But in my defense, I've had a lot of meals out with people lately.  That and if I have eaten at home it's been something simple or cool from the fridge.  

But last night there was a nice thunderstorm which cooled off things considerably so I took this opportunity to fire up the oven (almost literally) and make some cookies.  I actually didn't discover my love of snickerdoodles until college.  My roommate Kelsey made some and before this I hadn't even heard of them.  This is my first attempt at them but this recipe looked too good too miss out on.

Snickerdoodles

Makes 3 dozen cookies

For the dough:

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 large eggs, room temperature

2 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tarter 

1 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

For the cinnamon sugar:

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar until smooth, 2-3 minutes.  Add the eggs and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt.  Add to the butter mixture and mix on low speed until combined.  The down will be too soft and sticky to roll.  Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour or overnight.

Preheat to oven to 350 F.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.  

Using a 1 ounce cookie scoop or tablespoon, shape the dough into balls and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar (flatten the cookies a bit while in the cinnamon sugar and flip over as they are placed on the cookie sheet-that way you get a lot of the sugar on the cookie).

Place the cookies 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.  Flatten them slightly with your fingertips so they stay put.  

Bake for about 12-13 minutes or until the bottoms are slightly golden in color (mine took about 10 minutes, so check then).  These cookies are supposed to be chewy, so do not overbake.  Remove to a wire rack to cool. 

**I made the recipe last night and put in the fridge overnight.  It rained alllllll day today and was barely over 70 degrees!  A very good day for baking.  It almost felt like :gasp: fall.  Or maybe it was just the cinnamon that made me ready to wear jeans and jump in piles of leaves.