The Elves’ Snickerdoodles

My great friend Pam, of Gingerbread Snowflakes is having a virtual Cookie Exchange all month starting today!  This will be my first cookie that I am linking to her party!  My Mom and I will be baking some other fun cookies this weekend to add to the party!  I hope you will jump over to Gingerbread Snowflakes and join in on the fun!  If you are coming from her post, then "Hi, and welcome!"  This is actually a post from last year but I loved these cookies so much because of the fun name and great taste.  In fact I just made up a double batch yesterday to start off my holiday baking!!

Anjeanette had her annual Cookie Exchange over the weekend. Though, that’s hers to tell and not mine. ;) I can tell you about the cookies I brought. I wanted something new and as soon as I heard the name for these I knew they were the ones. “The Elves’ Snickerdoodles”. So cute, right?
Well, I felt the point of these cookies is to make them colorful…you know, something fun for the Elves! In the picture of my colorful sprinkles notice the red one (on the lower left) is chunkier. I crushed up red hots and added it to the red sugar sprinkles. The red cookies ended up being everyone’s favorites (especially mine…yum-o!). I even used some decorative shaped sprinkles (I have gingerbread, snowflake, and tree shaped sprinkles….I use them as often as I can!).

I’ll give you the recipe at the end of this post. With their name, how pretty they were, and some added bling for the presentation…I did not even care how they tasted.
But Oh My Gosh! They were delicious! I think it’s the lemon zest, sour cream, and red hots that make them fantastic!
The last couple of years my presentation for the cookies has kind of lacked. So, this year I had to make them cuter. I added the holly and mistletoe name tags to the top, some sparkly Christmas ribbon and “boxed” them up in champagne glasses. That way you could see the cookies pretty colors through the whole packaging.

Notice on the bottom of the glasses…I added shrinky dink wine charms that I had already made. Love these.
I found the recipe at the Family Fun website. This is from there:
Being one of Santa's elves requires a lot of qualities we admire: industriousness, cooperation, attention to detail, and perhaps most of all, a sense of humor. Says one elf we spoke to: "We work hard all year long. The hours are long, so morale is important. The baker elves (the ones assigned to kitchen duty) know that one sure way to keep their crew happy throughout the holiday season is by serving plenty of these sparkly sugar-topped Snickerdoodles. The name alone just gives us the giggles."

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 tablespoons soft butter

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Colored sugar or edible glitter

Instructions

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and butter. Gradually mix in the sugar. Beat in the egg until blended, then the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
2. With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture half at a time, until evenly mixed. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30 to 60 minutes.
3. Shortly before baking heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one or two large cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Put the decorative sugar into small bowls.
4. With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into 1-1/2-inch-thick balls. Roll the balls in the colored sugar and place them on the prepared baking sheets spaced about 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies on the center oven rack for 15 to 18 minutes, until they're a light golden brown. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 2 to 3 minutes. Then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Makes about 24 cookies.

My addition to these would be to double the lemon zest (thank you Mother for the fresh lemons!). Also, add crushed red hots to your red sprinkles. So super Yummy!

Rebecca

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