Twitter Avatar March – Emerill Lagasse Snickerdoodles

It’s time for another round of Twitter Avatar Fun. Last year a couple of my blog friends were having fun on Twitter with their avatars: they would pick a bread and everyone would post that bread as their avatar for that month. This year the theme is chefs and I decided to join in on the fun. Nancy came up with the great idea of each of us picking a different chef for each month. Everyone chooses one recipe by that chef, takes a photo of the dish and uses that photo as our avatar for that month.

March’s avatar chef is Emeril Lagasse, chosen by my dear friend Margaret. I chose to make Snickerdoodles, the recipe can be found here. I basically made these as written, except for one tiny detail: I added 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon to the cookie dough. I simply couldn’t resist it! Now I’m sure there must be something wrong: the recipe says it will make 20 cookies, but I ended up with 40 of these delicious cookies!

Next month’s chef is Jacques Pepin, chosen by Di.

Snickerdoodles

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening

8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

1 1/2 cups sugar, plus 2 tbsp

2 large eggs

1 tbsp cinnamon (I used an extra 1/2 tsp)

Preheat the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Sift the flour, baking soda and salt (and optional 1/2 tsp cinnamon) into a bowl.

Beat together the shortening and butter. Add 1 1/2 cups sugar and continue beating until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the flour mixture and blend well until smooth.

Mix the three tablespoons sugar with the tablespoon cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll the dough, by hand, into 1 1/2-inch balls. Roll the balls in the cinnamon sugar. Flatten the balls to 1/2-inch disks, spacing them evenly on unlined cookie sheets. Bake until light brown, but still moist in the center, about 12 minutes. Cool on a rack.