heart shaped snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are my husband's favorite cookie.  He always asks me to make them and I really don't mind because, well, buttery + cinnamon sugary = SO frickin good.  What is it about cinnamon and sugar that is so perfect?  It reminds me of my childhood and lots of loaves of my favorite Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl bread.  

For this batch of snickerdoodles, I decided to switch it up and make them heart shaped.  Snickdoodle dough is a lot stickier than the average sugar cookie dough, so you will need to heavily flour your work surface or roll the dough out between two sheets of parchment paper.

I like to use a mix of flour and mostly powdered sugar when rolling out dough - the powdered sugar prevents sticking but it won't dry out the dough as much as flour.

Snickerdoodle Cookies {recipe from the Food Network Favorites cookbook}
-2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
-1 teaspoon baking soda
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-1/2 cup shortening
-1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
-1 1/2 cups sugar {plus 3 tablespoons for dusting the cookies}
-2 large eggs
-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon {I like to add a little cinnamon to the dough} plus 1 tablespoon for dusting
-extra flour and some powdered sugar for the work surface {less than a cup of each}

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. Using an electric hand or stand mixer, beat together the shortening and butter until well combined.  Add the 1 1/2 cup of sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy, this will take about 5 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each is added.  Finally, mix in the dry ingredients and blend until smooth.  Right towards the end of the blending, add in the 1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon.

4. Flour/powder sugar the work surface, rolling pin, and your hands.  Working with about one fourth of the dough at a time, roll out until about 1/4" thick and cut with a heart shape cookie cutter.  Transfer the heart cookies to a baking sheet.  

5. Mix together the extra 3 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and just before baking, sprinkle with the mixture over each cookie.  Press down gently so that the cinnamon-sugar mixture sinks into the dough.

6. Bake for about 10 minutes, remove from oven, and pull the parchment off the hot baking sheet and set on the counter so the cookies can cool.  

This recipe will make about 20 or 22 cookies....I guess it depends on how much dough you eat.  I always tend to eat way too much dough, so I only got about 20 heart shaped cookies out of this recipe :).  

Enjoy!