Sunday, October 9, 2016

Snickerdoodles, delivered

My mother's cookbook, the one I grew up using, was called Settlement House Cookbook, a depression era cookbook. I learned the likes of oatmeal and raisin, peanut butter, and ginger snap cookies. 

My mother-in-law's go to cookbook was Betty Crocker, a post war wedding gift to young brides cookbook. She quickly gifted me a copy, so I could make snickerdoodles for her son. I don't know which daughter has it now.

Laura and I used a recipe from the internet, Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles. It looked every bit the recipe I remembered. To be sure, I compared it to Betty Crocker on the internet, and find the venerable old lady has divided the flour between white and whole wheat, in her later incarnation. Hrumph!

Mrs. Sigg's Snickerdoodles

1/2 c butter
1/2 c margarine
1 1/2 c white sugar
2 eggs
2 t vanilla extract

2 3/4 c all-purpose flour
2 t cream of tartar
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

2 T white sugar
2 t ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C)
Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 c sugar, the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape the dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
Mix the 2 tablespoons of sugar and the cinnamon. Roll the balls of dough in the mixture. Place 2" apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

We had to bake 11 minutes to get brown bottoms on the cookies. I see Laura has changed the recipe to 3 cups of flour. I think hers needed more time because we beat so much air into creaming the butter and sugar. I doubt you can make these wrong.


We had lunch with Emily, at Hiram.
She said she would be the most popular person on her floor, with cookies.
I said there were only a dozen.
She will be popular with her roommate.


I let the girls climb four flights and visit.


I hung around outside and admired the season.






23 comments:

  1. Nice for the girls to get some time together and for you to see your young college student.

    I'll try the recipe with my granddaughters. Love the fall colour too.

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  2. I do like snickerdoodles. May have to make some this Fall. And I think we all had the Betty Crocker cookbook when we started married life. It was 'a given'... and great because I had never cooked at home.

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  3. I had a Betty Crocker cookbook years ago. I think Emily seems to be doing well, glad the sisters could have time to visit.

    Betty

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  4. Thank you for the recipe. Perhaps when himself gets home I will make it. IF I am feeling generous.
    Like your decision to enjoy the autumnal colour. And yes, 12 cookies makes for a happy roommate.

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  5. I used to bake snickerdoodles, but now I don't bother baking cookies. Too much work. Lol.

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  6. What are those gorgeous flowers that resemble Zinnias?
    your Snickerdoodles recipe is very similar to mine. Mine uses 1 cup margarine instead of half and half marg and butter, and I don't roll the balls in a sugar cinnamon mix, instead using an old salt shaker to sprinkle a mix of caster sugar and cinnamon over the cookies as soon as they come out of the oven. I got my recipe off the internet, but can't remember whose it is.

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    Replies
    1. I googled, they are zinnias, I just hadn't seen any for so long I wasn't sure.

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  7. Hari OM
    Yum... and cook's privilege to vary the recipe! Lovely visit for two different reasons - the girls to get together time and you to see these glorious colours! YAM xx

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  8. Hello!
    It's funny how we follow a recipe and it never tastes the same way as it tasted when we tried it made by another person. It seems that recipes are mysterious and choose the cooks they prefer. Or maybe... it's the cook's energy, who knows...

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  9. And what a season from those photographs Joanne. Thanks for the recipe.

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  10. I was hearing on the radio someone talking about how much an original BC cookbook was worth today

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  11. One of our favorite cookies at this house. I think I will make a batch today!!

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  12. Those girls are actually young women now. It amazes me how much they have matured. The picture with all the flowers is going into my igsaw pictures. It will be a good one.

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  13. Fall is beautiful. I'm sure Emily enjoyed those snickerdoodles ;-)

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  14. That's funny--when my husband went off to college, every time he'd come home, his mom would have a big batch of snickerdoodles for him to take back. And yes, it always made him SO popular!

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  15. fun for emily to visit her sister. I look at cookies now and admire them and think how good they look but after I went through menopause I lost all taste for them. I try now and then but one of two small bites is enough.

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  16. Snickerdoodles sound great (and easy) - why margarine (because of the Depression?) Though I could not find "cream tartare" in the net - I hope it is sweet?

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  17. Hello, Brigitta

    Blogger is not letting me reply directly to your comment, so I hope this works:

    But just exactly what is cream of tartar that makes it so magical? Technically, it’s an acid— specifically, tartaric acid. It’s a byproduct of wine production, the residue left on the barrels, actually. Most commonly, cream of tartar is used as a leavener, because when it’s combined with baking soda, together they produce carbon dioxide gas. That’s the same gas that’s produced by yeast in bread baking. When it’s added to egg whites, it boosts the strength of the individual air bubbles and slows down their natural tendency to deflate. And when added to simple syrup, it prevents sugar’s natural tendency to re-bond and form crystals.

    But if you don’t have it in your pantry and your recipe calls for it, just substitute fresh lemon juice or white vinegar for the cream of tartar. For every 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda in the recipe, use 1 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar. As an example, if your cookie recipe calls for 1 teaspoon baking soda, add 2 teaspoons lemon juice instead of the cream of tartar. If your simple syrup recipe asks for 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar, use 3-4 drops of lemon juice. And for the whipping egg whites? Add 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice per egg white.

    The results will be so close, you probably won’t notice the substitution.

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  18. Cookies are okay, but it's the tree that I find so beautiful! The cream of tartar question was interesting. I wanted plain cane sugar to make hummingbird nectar for feeders... we're now in Mexico and even though I know the Spanish word for sugar I not only couldn't find it nor could anyone (customers) tell me where it was located. Finally, I found a store (huge store... like a huge Wal-Mart) employee who took me to it.... a big display... right beside the eggs, before you get to the huge produce department. Go Figure....

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