Hello, my name is David. I have prepared a Dutch dish for you today. Before I tell you about the snickerdoodle, I am going to tell you a bit about some early American Dutch foods.

When the Dutch came from Holland, they brought with them their waffle irons with which they made the treats they were so fond of. They made waffles by pouring batter into the waffle iron. This dish was easily made, and it tasted good, too. Cookies were baked similarly to the waffles, but they were baked in wafer irons. These cookies had things like initials baked into them. Since the name for this particular type of cookies is hard to pronounce in the Dutch Language, I'll just tell you that it translates to iron cookies. Funeral cakes were made to be passed out at funerals. They were thick, round cookies that had the name of the dead on them. Frequently, they were not even eaten at all and were cherished for years.

In the New World, the Dutch sometimes did not bake their cookies. Instead, they were fried in lard. The oil cake is the ancestor of today's doughnut. The oil cake was round, puffy, coated with sugar, and sometimes had raisins or chopped apples in them. The doughnut had a hole in the middle. With the hole in the middle, doughnuts, unlike oil cakes, were not soggy in the middle and they were crisp on the edges. Next time you eat a doughnut, thank the Dutch for inventing a doughnut that isn't soggy in the middle.

Snickerdoodles. That is the dish I have prepared for you today. When the Dutch came to America long ago, they brought many fabulous foods with them. One of those foods is called snickerdoodles. No one knows for sure where the word "snickerdoodle" comes from. Perhaps it is related to the German word "Schnecke" meaning snail. Very possibly snickerdoodle was formed from he Dutch word "snekrad" meaning snail wheel. A snail wheel is a round wheel found in clocks. No matter where the word snickerdoodle originates from, it has been enjoyed for hundreds of years. The Dutch shared their snickerdoodles with the people of Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New York State ever since they have been made in America. Now you can thank the Dutch for snickerdoodles and non-soggy doughnuts.

Recipe:

1/2 cup butter or margarine (1/4 pound or 1 stick)

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg

2 cups flour

One and one half teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoons sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

Procedure:

Set oven to heat to 325 degrees Fahrenheit

Put butter or margarine in large mixing bowl and allow it to soften at room temperature. Press with the back of a wooden mixing spoon until creamy and smooth. Add sugar gradually and continue creaming until well blended. Add egg and beat well. Warning: Do not mix in the 2 tablespoons with the batter, it for sprinkling on top.

Sift flour into a separate bowl. Measure off 2 cups, add baking powder and salt, and sift again. Combine milk and vanilla extract. Add one-third of flour mixture to butter-sugar-and-egg mixture. Blend smooth. Add half the milk mixture and combine thoroughly. Add next third of flour mixture and blend; add second half of milk and mix well. Finally add last third of flour mixture and mix dough to smooth consistency.

In a small bowl combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and set aside. butter a large cookie sheet, about 12 x 15 inches. Using a spoon and a knife, drop mounds of dough by the heaping teaspoonful onto the cookie sheet, placing them about two inches apart (about 15 cookies to a sheet). Sprinkle each mound of dough generously with the cinnamon-and-sugar mixture.

Bake cookies in three batches, about 15 minutes each, or until cookies are lightly browned around the edges and centers spring back when touched lightly. Remove to covered tin. Makes about 45 cookies.