A few years back, I had a moment of genius. When my grandmother asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I thought about it and came up with this response. I wanted a collection of her favorite recipes. That year I was presented with a recipe box full of my grandmother’s favorite, classic recipes. It is one of my most cherished items.

This weekend, as part of my new obsession with my stand mixer, I decided I needed to make cookies. Something simple, homey, and wonderful. I pulled out my recipe box from my grandma, convinced it would hold the perfect sweet, and it did. I found a card that read, “Snickerdoodles”. Snickerdoodles are one of two cookies that I associate with my grandmother. I can remember rolling all the little balls of dough in the cinnamon and sugar at the family table in her kitchen when I was still very small. (The other cookies I remember making with her as a child are her lemon sugar cookies and they are awesome.)

Now, I don’t know how much credit I can give my grandma for this recipe. It also says on the well worn card, “Mrs. W.J. Peters. Grant County Home Club”. So, if grandma got this recipe from Mrs. Peters, I thank her too.

Grandma’s Snickerdoodles

Preheat oven to 400.

Mix together thoroughly: 1 cup soft shortening. 1 1/2 cups sugar. 2 eggs.

Sift together and stir in: 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour. 2 tsp cream of tartar. 1 tsp. baking soda. 1/2 tsp. salt.

Chill dough. Roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll balls in a mixture of 4 Tbsp sugar and 3 tsp of cinnamon.

Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. (I like using parchment paper. Easy cleanup and easy to pull all the cookie’s off the hot pan all at once.)

Bake until lightly browned. The cookies puff up at first and then flatten out and crack on the tops. When that happens, they are ready. Mine took about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they could finish sooner than that.

This makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Jump into fall. Make your house smell wonderful. Think of your grandmother and make some cookies. Thanks Grandma.