I was so busy in the weeks leading up to Christmas this year that I didn’t get a chance to bake ANY Christmas cookies at home! Luckily, I had a chance to whip up some snickerdoodles at my mother-in-law’s house, so we had something to leave for Santa.

These snickerdoodles are pretty simple to make, though you are supposed to pop the cookie sheet and the dough in the fridge for 10-15 minutes before baking, which is a tiny bit annoying. The good news is that all that cinnamon will make your house smell amazing.

I liked this recipe because it is all butter, instead of a mix of butter and shortening. You’ll still need a little cream of tartar, though, to make them perfectly chewy.

Snickerdoodles (Recipe slightly adapted from Food.com, makes two dozen)
1 cup unsalted butter (let it sit out at room temperature for about 30 minutes)
1  1/2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
2  3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
3 teaspoons cinnamon

Put an ungreased cookie sheet in the fridge.

Beat the butter, 1 1/2 cups sugar, and eggs together in a large bowl until well blended. In another bowl, stir the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and blend until just combined. Put the dough in the refrigerator and then turn the oven to 350F to preheat.

While the dough is chilling, stir three tablespoons of sugar and another 3 tablespoons of cinnamon together in a small-ish bowl (I washed out the bowl I had used for the flour mixture and reused that).

After the dough has chilled for 10-15 minutes, take it out of the fridge and use a spoon and your hands to form it into small balls (about 1  1/2 to 2 inches in diameter). Roll the balls in the cinnamon mixture until totally covered, then place on the chilled cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches in between each ball to allow for spreading.

Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes, until crisp around the edges but still a little soft in the middle, then remove from the oven. Allow to sit on the baking sheet for a minute or two, then use a spatula to move them to a wire rack to cool.