Every single time I make Snickerdoodles for some sort of gathering or event, someone says “Snickerdoodles are my favorite!” Every. Single. Time.

Snickerdoodles are unique because of (at least) three things:

Cream of Tartar for that distinct tang.

A cinnamon sugar coating.

And crispy edges due to a 400 degree baking temperature. 

To whom do we owe this wonder of a cookie?

My favorite 1960s era Betty Crocker Cooky Book credits Mrs. Ronald Anfinson, from Benson, Minnesota. 

There are many versions of this story, but here is the one told on Betty Crocker’s website:

“It was a stroke of good luck and a hearty helping of chutzpah that got Patricia Anfinson a job working for America’s First Lady of Food. The year was 1945, and Anfinson (neé Roth), a new home economics grad of the University of Minnesota, had just picked up her brother-in-law, a uniformed Air Force officer, from the airport.

Making small talk, he asked the question all new graduates love to hear: ‘What do you want to do now?’ ‘I’d love to work for Betty Crocker,’ she replied. ‘But Marjorie Husted, the woman who runs the kitchens, is tough. She’s probably got a line of girls dying to work there.’

‘Well, why don’t we go see where she works,’ her brother-in-law suggested. A few minutes later, they were parked outside the Washburn Crosby headquarters in downtown Minneapolis. ‘Let’s just park for a minute and go up and look around,’ her brother-in-law cajoled. And so up the elevator they went! ‘Could you point me to Marjorie Husted’s office, please?’ her brother-in-law inquired at the front desk and shortly thereafter, there they both stood in Husted’s office.

After Anfinson’s charming relative presented her to the director of the Home Service Department, he left her alone with Husted, a woman known for her no-nonsense, take-charge attitude. ‘All right, honey,’ Husted said. ‘He got you in the door, and I’m a sucker for a man in uniform, but now you have two minutes to tell me why I should hire you.’

A few minutes later, Husted was escorting Anfinson to the personnel office. She was hired, and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Patricia Anfinson poured her creativity into projects consistently and steadily. For years.

She did tireless work on one of Betty’s best-known masterpieces, Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, and in her role she was able to pitch and contribute ideas. 

She leveraged what she knew and loved and used her passion and persistence to actually get a recipe she cherished — her Grandmother’s “family cookie” —  included in the book. 

To her delight, the cookbook team tested the recipe and accepted it into the cookbook. And soon after, Patricia Anfinson earned the name “The Snickerdoodle Lady.”

Yes, Patricia had courage. She walked into the building with her brother-in-law, stood by him when he was asking for the office, and took the opportunity given to her — the chance to make that two-minute pitch.

But she also had steadiness. The exposure she gained as The Snickerdoodle Lady happened after working for years, refining recipes, caring enough to push for a “family cookie,” and showing up consistently in a pretty unglamorous role.

The cookie we love today exists because both happened: Courage + Steadiness. 

One without the other often goes nowhere.

Many of us think we’re waiting for:

• confidence
• clarity
• inspiration
• permission
  

But what we’re often missing is the willingness to act once without certainty and then stay with the thing once the excitement wears off — a brief moment of nerve followed by a long stretch of ordinary effort.

Maybe we don’t need to overhaul our lives.

Maybe we need one minute of bravery and then the willingness to follow it through!

I can’t wait to hear about the small yes in your own life — the one that took a bit of nerve at first and then asked you to stay.

PS Patricia’s Snickerdoodle recipe is included below – just in time for you to make some this week for Santa.