My Favorite Snickerdoodles

I had forgotten how much I love this recipe. These turn out nice and chewy, unlike many snickerdoodles I have tried. SO GOOD! Yum :)
Ingredients

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Cream together butter, shortening, 1 1/2 cups sugar, the eggs and the vanilla. Blend in the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Shape dough by rounded spoonfuls into balls.
Mix the 2 tablespoons sugar and the cinnamon. Roll balls of dough in mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake 7 to 8 minutes, or until set but not too hard. Remove immediately from baking sheets. Makes 3 dozen.

Molten Chocolate Cakes

Made these New Years Eve and I just had to post the recipe! I got it from allrecipes.com and have been using it for years. Now that I have to be on a gluten-free diet, thanks to my darling little boy :)... I am constantly searching for things that are delicious and use very little flour. Gluten-free flour is very expensive to make or buy. We just cook ours in little pyrex ramkins and divide the batter in four. They work perfectly baked at 450 for 10 minutes. For those of us that prefer milk chocolate over dark chocolate, I have posted my own favorite version of the recipe at the bottom of this post as well. Yum! Top with ice cream :) Enjoy!

1 cup unsalted butter or unsalted margarine*
8 ounces semisweet chocolate chips, or bars, cut into bite-size chunks
5 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
Pinch of salt
4 teaspoons flour (or matzo meal, ground in a blender to a fine powder)
8 extra-large paper muffin cups (or use regular paper muffin cups, which will make 12 cakes)

Garnish:
1 (6 ounce) container raspberries, barely moistened and rolled in about
1/2 cup sugar right before serving

Directions

Melt butter and chocolate in a medium heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water; remove from heat. Beat eggs, sugar and salt with a hand mixer in a medium bowl until sugar dissolves. Beat egg mixture into chocolate until smooth. Beat in flour or matzo meal until just combined. (Batter can be made a day ahead; return to room temperature an hour or so before baking.)
Before serving dinner, adjust oven rack to middle position; heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a standard-size muffin tin (1/2 cup capacity) with 8 extra-large muffin papers (papers should extend above cups to facilitate removal). Spray muffin papers with vegetable cooking spray. Divide batter among muffin cups.
Bake until batter puffs but center is not set, 8 to 10 minutes. Carefully lift cakes from tin and set on a work surface. Pull papers away from cakes and transfer cakes to dessert plates.
Top each with sugared raspberries and serve immediately.

*For the milk chocolate lovers: Exchange the semisweet chocolate chips for 8 oz. milk chocolate chips & 1 T. cocoa. Reduce the amount of sugar to 1/3 c.