Mystery Recipe

So, I’m an idiot. Big time. Any home baker worth their salt would have looked at this recipe and immediately known what it was. I did not. I’ve had it sitting in the “what IS this, Grandmom?” pile. Just a list of ingredients with no title and almost no instruction. But I was excited to mix it all together and see if it would speak to me.

Do you bake? Did this immediately tell you what it was? Did you think “well yea, you are an idiot”? I know I should have seen it, but in my defense, my family does not really like cookies. It’s just not something they gravitate towards. If given all of the things I can and do bake – cookies are always the last choice. Unless it’s my chocolate chip cookie. It’s taken me years to work that recipe out – and I’m here to tell you that I make the best chocolate chip cookies. Ever.

Let’s Bake

The recipe as written:

• 1 cup shortening (part butter)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbs sugar
• 2 tsp cinnamon

Bake 400 degrees 8 to 10 minutes

I knew immediately that it wasn’t a cake type of thing. With so little liquid in this recipe, what thick batter could possibly bake in 8 to 10 minutes. Now that it’s all said and done – and from doing a bit of research on google – the cream of tartar should have been the thing that really hit me over the head.

The creaming method was the best way forward and I mixed up the shortening/butter and sugar and then added the eggs one at a time. Once that was done I added all the dry ingredients except the small amount of sugar and cinnamon.

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Finally things started to click! Why would you list sugar in the ingredient list and then list sugar again? At least my light bulb turned on eventually! Clearly this is a cookie! I hollered from the kitchen “I’m such a boob!” My husband, hearing the word boob, of course comes running. He was pretty disappointed when he got there.

Accepting my defeat, I scooped them all out and rolled them in the sugar/cinnamon mixture and baked for about 9 minutes.

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End Result

Can I just tell you that I’ve never made a Snicker-doodle in my life? I accidentally made snicker doodles.

However, this is what I live for. I have a basic recipe that I can play with! This is exactly where I started about 4 years ago with my chocolate chip cookies – a simple base to play with and expand on. The Quest: to make the best Snicker-doodle ever! Big bonus points that the shell I start with is my Grandmother’s. These cookies are really good – but there is definitely room for improvement.

But still….what a moron I am. Even my sister, who admittedly, does not bake, texted back “well, yea. It’s a snickerdoodle….Duh“.