Giant Snickerdoodles

Earlier this week I went down to Olympia, WA on a quest to find cupcakes. Olympia failed me. I did not find one single Cupcake in Olympia. Tired several different bakies... all of which were either closed, shut down or just didn't sell cupcakes.

One bakery however did sell Snickerdoodle cookies... giant ones.  So, I caved in and bought one.  Now, I haven't had a Snickerdoodle in a while but with one bite I was reminded of how delicious these simple cookies are.

I'm bringing dinner to my dad today and what better for dessert than homemade Snickerdoodles!  Seriously... you should run to your kitchen and make these.  Giant ones.  They're so worth it!

Giant Snickerdoodles
Makes a bakers dozen

½ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
½ cup pure vegetable shortening
1 ½ cups sugar
2 eggs

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt

Topping:
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons cinnamon
3-4 tablespoons large colored sugar crystals

1. Preaheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In the bowl of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and shortening.
3. Add the sugar and beat on high for about 2 minutes until light and fluffy.
4. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the eggs and mix until incorporated.  Scrape the sides of the bowl again.
5. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
6. Slowly add the flour to the butter mixture.  Scrape the sides and mix on medium until incorporated.
7. In a small bowl, whisk together the topping sugar, cinnamon and sugar crystals.
8. Using an ice cream scoop, measure out balls of dough.  Drop ball into sugar & cinnamon.  A little trick I learned while making these... to get the big sugar crystals to stick to the dough, pick up, rotate and drop the ball into the sugar several times to coat the sides.  The force of dropping the ball makes the large sugar crystals stick!
9. Place 6 on a cookie sheet.
10. Bake 10 minutes, rotating pan after 5 minutes.
11. Let cool on the pan for 2 minutes before removing to cool on a wire rack.
12. Enjoy!