You know Snickerdoodles, right? Those crunchy, cinnamon-scented sugar cookies? Well, Superdoodles are a riff on that theme, but with a much larger hit of cinnamon. Cinnamon chips, plus a final dusting of pure ground cinnamon, make these cookies everything a cinnamon-lover could wish for.

1 cup (6 1/2 ounces) vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces) sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 teaspoons cream of tartar*
1 teaspoon baking soda*
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups (11 5/8 ounces) King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
cinnamon-sugar**
2 cups (12 ounces) cinnamon chips

*Or substitute 2 teaspoons baking powder for the cream of tartar and baking soda (2 teaspoons total, not 3!)

**Mix cinnamon and sugar till you've got just the flavor and color you want; if you have no idea where to begin, try 1 teaspoon cinnamon mixed with 1/2 cup sugar, which makes a "middle-of-the-road" version of cinnamon-sugar. Our extra-fine Cinnamon-Sugar Plus is perfect here.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

To make the dough: Beat together the shortening and sugar till smooth, then add the eggs, again beating till smooth. Beat in the vanilla, cream of tartar, baking soda (or baking powder, in place of the cream of tartar and soda), and salt, then add the flour, mixing slowly till combined. (If you beat the dickens out of the dough at this point, your cookies run the risk of being tough.) Add the chips once the flour is mixed in. Place about 1/2 cup cinnamon-sugar in an 8" or 9" round cake pan.

To shape the cookies: Drop the soft dough by teaspoonfuls (a teaspoon cookie scoop works wonderfully well here) into the pan with the sugar, about 6 to 8 balls at a time. Gently shake the pan to coat the dough balls with sugar. Place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving about 1 ½" between them. Using the bottom of a glass (or the end of the pusher from your food processor), flatten each cookie till it's about ¼" thick and 1 ½" in diameter. Repeat till you've used up all the dough.

To bake: Bake the cookies for 10 to 11 minutes, reversing the position of the pans (top to bottom, and back to front) midway through. They'll be set and just starting to turn golden. Remove the cookies from the oven, and cool them on a rack. When they’re cool, top them with the merest dusting of ground cinnamon; a tea strainer or other very fine sieve works well here.
Yield: about 90 cookies.