Snickerdoodles - half butter, half shortening

Snickerdoodles - made dough July 4, 2021 from Homemade Interest

Although I have my favorite snickerdoodle recipes here and here, both are made with all butter. Not a bad thing in my book but since I'm still mostly baking for Soldiers Angels' care packages going to hot climates, I'm temporarily trying to incorporate baked goods made at least partially with shortening to help with the shelf life en route and in triple degree heat.

Hence why I wanted to try out this recipe since it uses half shortening and half butter. While it doesn't unseat either of my favorite snickerdoodle recipes, it was still quite good so it just became my summer snickerdoodle recipe.

When making any cookie dough by combining shortening and butter, remember that cold butter out of the refrigerator will be much harder and more difficult to incorporate with the softer texture of solid shortening. If you try combining just the two together, it'll be more difficult to get the lumps out of the butter. And I'm not a fan of letting butter get to "room temperature" in hot weather as then you risk the butter becoming too soft before you can mix it which will impact the texture of your dough and make it softer and more greasy.

 

Instead, I recommend beating the butter for a minute or so to soften it and make it more creamy for mixing. Then beat it with the sugars first before adding the shortening; that'll help the ingredients incorporate with each other more easily while not risking butter lumps in your dough.

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Coating

4 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt; set aside.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter, shortening, granulated sugar and brown sugar. If your butter is cold, beat the butter separately first, add in the sugars then the shortening. Beat until fluffy and well combined, 2-3 minutes.
3. Add the eggs, one at a time, followed by the vanilla; beat until combined.
4. Add the flour mixture in 2 additions, mixing after each addition until just combined. Do not overmix.
5. Portion dough into golf-ball-size dough balls, cover and chill or freeze for several hours or overnight.
6. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. 
7. In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Roll dough balls in mixture, thoroughly coating each. Evenly space coated dough balls on prepared sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until edges are set and middles no longer look raw. Let rest for several minutes on baking sheets then remove to wire rack to cool completely.