I've decided it is important to cream the shortening for cookies until it is very light and fluffy before adding the other ingredients. Here is a good definition of creaming: "it means to beat and mix an ingredient or a combination of ingredients to a smooth, creamy consistency. You'll see it most often in the case of butter and sugar, where the sugar is dissolved into the butter as the butter is softened.
Creaming ingredients by hand starts by mashing the ingredients up against the side of a mixing bowl with a spoon, fork or spatula, and beating and beating until the mixture is smooth and homogeneous. In many kitchens, an electric mixer and, to a lesser extent, food processor and blender have lightened the work load considerably."

Since I've started making an effort to get the sugar dissolved in this first step my cookies have been lighter and more tender, so give it a try some time.

1 cup shortening (like Crisco, not butter or margarine)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cinnamon mixed with sugar

In a mixer bowl, start beating the shortening and add the sugar gradually. When well-combined and very light and fluffy, add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients, mixing well. With the mixer running, add the dry ingredients slowly, letting them get incorporated. Chill the dough at least an hour. Shape the dough into balls the size of walnuts, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 400 degrees until slightly brown but still soft.

Nobody in my family ever made snickerdoodles, not my mother or either one of my grandmothers; they just were not in our culinary heritage, and I'm not sure why not.. One of my grandmothers made a lot of filled cookies - cooked raisin or date filling sandwiched between soft sugar cooky dough. The other one made molasses cookies cut out in the shape of lions (no special reason for that shape) and sugar cookies made with heavy cream from the farm. She kept them in separate metal bread boxes, and those boxes were never empty. A couple weeks ago a cousin I haven't seen in more than 50 years mentioned how she remembered those cookies.



Yes, that's a bear wearing sunglasses in front of a tea set.