Snickerdoodles

So, tonight was my first attempt at Snickerdoodles. I had heard good things about them, but have never tried them.

Recipe:
I got this from the internet, but I altered the recipe somewhat from what I found based on previous baking endeavors.

Makes About: 4 dozenish

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar - I used White Vinegar instead

Coating:

• 3 tablespoons white sugar
• 3.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar.
   
3. Add the eggs and the vanilla and mix together.
   
4. In a seperate bowl, sift together the flour, soda, and salt.
5. Add dry ingredients a little at a time to wet bowl and mix well.
6. Add vinegar and mix in, being careful not to over mix.
   
7. Shape dough by rounded half tablespoon scoops into balls.
   
8. Mix the 3 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon in a ziplock baggie. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets covered in parchment paper.
9. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets.

Additional notes for my kitchen: I have an airbake cookie sheet, which needs longer in the over, so the cookies went for 10:30 on it, and a non-airbake which only went in for 9. My oven is woefully imbalanced in terms of heating, so I let things go a little longer than most recipes call for.

Thoughts:
While they smell awesome while cooking, the flavor isn't as strong as I would have expected, they seem a little bland to me. Maybe that's a good thing? We shall see what the judges think.

Next time:

• Don't knock cooked cookies into the oven causing burning and a frantic attempt to pick out cookie bits of a 400 degree oven.
• Maybe a little more salt to add flavor?
• Maybe a touch more vanilla? The cookies don't have brown sugar like most others, which could be part of the deficit of flavor.
• Perhaps instead of 1/2 cup shortening, using butter flavored shortening? Or maybe just 1 whole cup of butter instead.