This is my grandmother's recipe for what she calls butterscotch cookies. These little gems that have a caramelly flavor to them. When perfectly baked the outside edges are crispy and the middle is slightly chewy. Note that you can change the spice mix to your own taste.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream together:
1 pound brown sugar (I use dark)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/2 Crisco
Add:
3 eggs, one at a time until mixed
Sift in:
1 1/2 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
The dough will be very loose. At this point GM's recipe calls for the batter to be chilled in the bowl for an hour, then scooped and rolled into marble-sized balls (diameter of a penny or nickel). However, the dough is VERY sticky and hard to handle unless cold. The dough balls can be placed on fairly close together on an ungreased cookie sheet; they won't spread very much. Bake the first batch at 350 for 7 minutes, then watch closely until they "look done". Time each remaining batch based on how the first one comes out. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing them from the sheet.
My method is to scoop the finished dough into an appropriately-sized zip bag and let it rest for 20-30 minutes. I then cut a 1/4 inch hole in the bottom corner of the bag and pipe the dough onto the cookie sheet. The piped blobs should be about the diameter of a nickel; they'll spread slightly while baking, but you can easily fit 40-50 of them on a sheet pan. Bake for 8 minutes at 350 and check for doneness. My last batch needed 9 minutes per sheet, but individual batches vary with dough temperature, humidity, and oven stability. Be warned: the difference between done and burned is about 30 seconds.
