Yield: About 3 dozen cookies
Chill Time: 20 minutes
Bake Time: 8–10 minutes
Oven: 400°F
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup Crisco
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Raisins, for topping
Cinnamon Sugar:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Using a mixer, cream together the Crisco, softened butter and sugar until well combined.
- Add the egg and mix on low speed for about 60 seconds.
- Measure the buttermilk and stir the vanilla into it. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Whisk gently, then sift through a flour sifter or fine-mesh strainer to remove any lumps.
- Add one-third of the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix just until incorporated. Add one-third of the buttermilk mixture and mix just until incorporated.
- Continue alternating the dry ingredients and buttermilk by thirds until everything is combined. Avoid overmixing.
- Remove the mixing blade and refrigerate the batter for about 20 minutes.
- Drop rounded teaspoons of chilled batter about 2 inches apart onto lightly greased baking sheets.
- Sprinkle each generously with cinnamon sugar and place one raisin in the center.
- Bake for 8–10 minutes at 400°F, until set and lightly golden around the edges.
Cinnamon Jumbles — Denver High-Altitude Version
For Denver, I would make small adjustments rather than radically changing your mother’s recipe. This is where I’d start:
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup Crisco
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ⅞ cup granulated sugar (reduce from 1 cup)
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ⅜ teaspoon baking soda (reduce from ½ teaspoon)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Raisins, for topping
Cinnamon Sugar:
Keep this unchanged:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Method: Follow the original directions, including the 20-minute refrigeration.
For the first batch, I would bake at 400°F for about 7–9 minutes, checking at 7 minutes. Because these are small cookies, I wouldn’t automatically raise the oven temperature—the original 400°F is already fairly hot.
One thing I’d do before baking the whole batch
Bake 3 test cookies first.
If they spread too much, add another 1 tablespoon flour to the remaining dough. If they’re too thick or dry, leave the flour alone next time or add a teaspoon or two of buttermilk.
That little test is especially worthwhile with a treasured family recipe. Once we determine exactly how your Cinnamon Jumbles behave in your Denver kitchen, we can lock in a Denver version that you can use every time.
And I especially like keeping the single raisin in the center. That’s the sort of detail I’d preserve rather than modernize—it makes this your family’s Cinnamon Jumbles