Happy Holidays!

As anyone who knows me could tell you, I love this time of year! I go a little nuts, especially now that I have my little Christmas cohort Wyatt to help. We decorate, read christmas books, watch christmas movies, make crafts, and of course We Bake!

It’s become a tradition that every year for a few weeks I bake like crazy, while across town my mom REALLY bakes like crazy. Then we get together, and in one day we bag up enough cookies and candies to choke an elf! Okay well I guess it probably wouldn’t take too much to actually choke an elf, but we make and bag enough to give as gifts to: mom’s friends, our families, my coworkers, and all of Brian’s clients. If it doesn’t sound like a lot then I’ve said something wrong… it’s insane! But it’s insane in a fun way, especially since my sister Mandy, Brian, and even Wyatt have been recruited to help with the baking and bagging.

Last year I adapted my favorite snickerdoodle recipe ever so slightly to turn them into Christmas Snickerdoodles! This is Trisha Yearwood’s Snickerdoodle Recipe, and it’s absolutely wonderful! I’ve adjusted the amount of salt because I always have unsalted butter on hand so I use that in place of her salted butter, and I’ve really upped the amount of sugar used to roll them in because… well that’s what makes them so darn Christmasy!

Please make these… I promise everyone on your Christmas list will love them!

Christmas Snickerdoodles Recipe

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Meal type	Dessert
Misc	Child Friendly, Freezable, Pre-preparable, Serve Cold, Serve Hot
Occasion	Christmas

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter (softened)
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tarter
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt
• 5 heaped tablespoons Christmas sugar
• 2 heaped teaspoons cinnamon

Directions

Step 1

Let's start with the ingredient that transforms these from insanely delicious snickerdoodles into insanely delicious "Christmas" snickerdoodles! You'll need cinnamon, red sugar, and green sugar.

Step 2

I listed 5 tablespoons of Christmas sugar to 2 teaspoons of cinnamon as the ratio for the dipping/rolling sugar mix. This is just to give you a guideline of where to start, but please feel free to modify that. I know I always do.

Step 3

The thing is that as you start rolling the dough balls, you'll end up using up the sugar and being left with balls that are mainly rolled in cinnamon. These will taste great... however, if you want the pretty red and green cookies as your finished product, you'll need to add more sugar as you go. By the time I've made a few batches of these back to back (as I end up doing a lot this time of year) I never know exactly how much sugar or cinnamon are in my mixes... I just keep adding both as I see fit. I make tons of these during the Christmas season, and I've found that the sugar mix keeps great if it's stored in tupperware when you're done rolling.

Step 4

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and get ready to sift the dry ingredients. Add in the flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt to your strainer or sifter.

Step 5

Sift it all into well mixed fluffy pile, then set aside while you ready the creamy stuff!

Step 6

I always crack my eggs into a small bowl first before adding them into the mixer bowl on top of my other ingredients.

Step 7

I've gotten some weird eggs in the past, and let me say that one bad egg can waste a stick of butter faster than Paula Dean! Stir the eggs up with a fork so that they incorporate into the dough faster.

Step 8

Add the butter, shortening, sugar, and eggs into your mixer bowl.

Step 9

Mix on medium speed for about 1 to 2 minutes. It should look well blended and creamy.

Step 10

Scoop in about half of your dry mix.

Step 11

Mix until just incorporated, then add the other half.

Step 12

Scrape down the sides and especially the bottom of the bowl, then mix one last time for only about 5 or 10 seconds. This dough has a perfect soft Play Doh texture, and if I weren't pregnant I'd just want to start eating it right now!

Step 13

To minimize on messy hands and fingers (which wastes more of your colorful sugar mix as it sticks to you instead of the dough) I like to roll all the dough into balls first. I go ahead and line them up on two large parchment lined cookie sheets.

Step 14

This should make about 50 Christmas Snickerdoodles once they're all rolled out. Now it's just a matter of getting these guys thoroughly rolled in the red and green sugar mixes... you may need to recruit help for this step.

Step 15

Aren't they adorable already?

Step 16

Pop into the 400 degree oven and bake for about 10 minutes. When you pull them out, they should be puffed up like this.

Step 17

Let them cool for a few minutes right on the pan, and then carefully transfer them onto cooling racks to finish cooling off.

Step 18

These have become my favorite holiday cookies because they're so stinking cute,

Step 19

and insanely delicious!

Step 20

Merry Christmas!