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I finally remembered! The Legendary Snickerdoodle Recipe™

I grew up in an area that was heavily influenced by the Mennonite/Amish-type culture and as such many fantastic ‘family’ recipes were made into books and available locally. My mom always baked her cookies and pies from these books and always they were the best. Several of my guild members across the country can even vouch for this, as one year I baked and sent them out to some of them around the holidays. I always thought these books came from somewhere local, but I’ve just found them out on the interwebs; I highly recommend checking out Cook Books by Good Books for some really amazing recipes.

One other thing… for those of you who have trouble getting those “perfectly browned on the bottom” cookies (something I was NEVER able to do) – try a baking stone. Really! And season it well… the more seasoned, the better the cookies turn out. My stone is mostly black now, with only the clay color coming through in a few areas (and on the bottom, of course). It was the ultimate cure for my burnt cookies… I never baked a cookie I didn’t burn, until I got my baking stone. If you’re a lover of cooking with cast iron – you’ll love baking stones, and likely never go back to those metal pan thingies.

And without further ado, The Legendary Snickerdoodle Recipe™

(Makes 4 dozen)

1 cup Shortening

1½ cups sugar

2¾ cups flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. soda

½ tsp. salt

1. Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs and beat well.
2. Sift together flour, cream of tartar, soda, and salt. Gradually stir into creamed mixture.
3. Chill dough 2 hours or more. Form into balls the size of walnuts. Roll each ball in a mixture of 2 Tbsp. sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon.
4. Bake at 400° for about 10 minutes. (Cookies should be lightly browned but still soft)

And there you have it folks… the best cookie recipe you will ever own. Please, please let me know if you try it. I’d love to hear feedback.

Please remember, this is not my own recipe and the book may be found by following the link above.

Thanks for coming out today – happy baking!

Failing at posting!

Hi everyone! I’m so sorry that I have been failing at posting! Things at work and AIM have distracted me… Also, I have been holding out on posting this week because I was hoping to share some photos from the Ren Faire. However, I haven’t received them yet. Since it is the Ren Faire, I prefer to NOT carry a camera, but Michael’s sister brought one along and took many adorable pictures of the children and some of the events.

Speaking of the Ren Faire… there are only two weekends left in the season for the PA Ren Faire, and Michael and I plan to attend both Saturdays. This Saturday we are going SANS CHILDREN and I’m hoping to visit several of the shows we passed on when the children were with us (due to content). I love the faire… have I mentioned that?

It’s always so much fun to dress up and immerse yourself in a role, forgetting about all that is ‘real life’ even if just for a day. For that day, it is normal to carry a sword on your belt, wear noise-making coin scarves on your hip, eat giant turkey legs without silverware, you are ‘m’lady’ to nearly everyone who addresses you and ‘good day’ is the typical greeting. For that day, chivalry is not dead, seeing armored knights is normal and clearing the street to make way for the queen’s court and hollering out ’long live the queen’ is expected as she passes. For that day, speaking to strangers is possible as you can remain anonymous despite being ‘in person’, and improvisation is possible and expected. For that day, we get to be like children again - pretending so completely, that we see the world around us in a different view and just for that day we have truly traveled through time.

More to come! Thanks for bearing with my lack of messages, and for coming back to visit my kitchen.

Coming Soon: SNICKERDOODLE Recipe!