This recipe comes from Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book. Yes, cooky, not cookie!

I picked up a pristine copy of this book at our favorite local coffee shop, Bamse, in our hometown of Shamokin. They are located in an old church, are dog friendly, sell used books, and have the motto “do only good”. Could there be anything better?

No, nothing could be better. Now do some good by baking these cookies for your neighbor.

Luc first saw the book. As he was asking me for it, I said yes before he even finished his sentence. Our mom had a copy of this book, and I was struck with an intense sense of nostalgia as soon as I saw it. I don’t even remember which cookies we’d bake from it, but with sweet tooth Luc in the kitchen, I knew that this copy would get a lot of use at my house.

With cinnamon as our ingredient of the season, I knew that a batch of snickerdoodles would fit the bill, and we’ll probably mix up a batch soon. But we like to challenge ourselves to try something new. So I searched for cinnamon in the cooky book and found one recipe with cinnamon in its name: cinnamon slices!

Cinnamon Refrigerator Cookies

These are cinnamon refrigerator cookies. You mix up the dough, form it into a log, refrigerate it, then slice and bake. So easy, and a great option for when you want to prep the dough and have it on hand for baking at a later time.

We made one small change to the recipe: using half shortening and half butter rather than all shortening. I prefer using all butter, but I wasn’t sure what, if any, effect it would have on how the cookies baked.

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1/2 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 to 3 tsp ground cinnamon*

• Cream together the butter, shortening, and sugars until well blended and fluffy.
• Mix in the eggs and vanilla, mixing well and scraping the bowl.
• Sift together the remaining dry ingredients. Add to the wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.
• Roll into a long, smooth log about 2.5 inches in diameter. I was a bit sloppy with the shape of my log, but I’m sure you’ll do better.
• Wrap in wax paper and chill for several hours or overnight.
• When ready to bake, heat oven to 400F. Cut the log of dough into slices that are about 1/8-1/4 inch thick. Place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 6-8 minutes or until lightly browned.

*Note about the cinnamon. We went all in with 3 tsp. Everyone in the house loved them, but I felt that the cinnamon added both flavor and that touch of “spice” or heat that it sometimes has. I think you wouldn’t notice the heat and would just notice the flavor at 2 tsp.

As you can see, my shapes are really wonky. These were so easy to prep and bake that we’re definitely going to make them again. And I’m going to work harder to get a nice, round log.

These are such a simple cookie that I think they’d be a great addition to holiday trays. They’re something that doesn’t take too much effort to make and fills the niche of being a simple & less sweet cookie to balance the frosted options. Happy baking!