No-butter Snickerdoodles

For some inexplicable reason, I've been fascinated with Mona Simpson lately. She happens to be a creative writing professor at my alma mater and the biological sister of Steve Jobs. And just from reading her novel, you can tell that brains run in the family; she really knows how to write. I once saw her speak in person and was not impressed, but when I started reading her book, I was hooked.

"The white VW gleamed in the sun and she carried me, hers again, my legs sticking out from her back. I felt sorry for my grandmother that day, moving around the kitchen in a blue print dress, there was flour all through the yellow light, she was baking, rolling out dough. She cut around our fingers, making cookies the size of our hands, all day she looked down at her work on the table, because I was not hers to watch anymore."

--Anywhere but Here, Mona Simpson

Few of her sentences are as lengthy and run-on as the above--it's just that I liked the imagery of this particular passage. There is something quite tragic about a grandmother rolling out cookie dough, concentrating on cutting perfect shapes for a little girl who is not her own. It's passages like this, and the fact that I have very little counter space, that confirm why I prefer to make drop cookies.

One drop cookie I absolutely adore is the snickerdoodle. Those who remember elementary school will understand why I feel pure joy at the words "book order." It was book order that exposed me to the wonders of Magic Eye, Paddington bear, and Pogs. And it was through book order that I got a hold of The Cookie Lovers' Cookie Cookbook, a tiny little thing that contains a recipe for snickerdoodles that I recently adapted into a batch of seriously delicious cookies.

The unusual thing about these snickerdoodles is that they are made with oil. The original recipe called for melted butter, but I discovered that using vegetable oil makes for tastier cookies. Why? I do not know. I do not question. I simply eat.

Recipe follows.


I Can't Believe It's No-Butter Snickerdoodles

Ingredients:
For the Dough
scant 1/2 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
For the Sugar Coating
*1 tbsp sugar
*t tsp cinnamon

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix ingredients for dough in order listed. Form into walnut-size balls and roll generously in sugar coating. The more coating, the most sparkly and pretty the cookies will be.

Place the cookies a few inches apart on a foil-lined ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten slightly if desired (flattening has a negligible effect -- I tried making both flattened and unflattened cookies, and they looked and tasted practically the same). Bake 8 min. for chewy/soft cookies, and 10 min. for crispy...they're delicious either way.