I love Snickerdoodles, thanks largely to Ravn Alaska (a small airline servicing the 49th state, including Homer) and its humorously fast service on our ~35 minute flights. The sugar and cinnamon and the soft yet thick cookie shape are a tremendous combination. A couple weeks ago I decided to try making them for the first time and, honestly, I'm not sure what kicked off the idea. Regardless, who cares? It's cookies! I made them a few days ago, here's how it went.
These days when I bake I basically just pull up Sally's Baking Addiction because she hasn't led me astray yet. This recipe was no different. It really wasn't difficult at all.
What you need:
Dough
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar (a spice)
1 tsp baking soda
1+1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened (~at room temp)
1+1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 (separated) egg yolk
2 tsp vanilla extract
Topping
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
If you bake at all you probably have most of these ingredients on hand. Flour, butter, eggs, sugar, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and vanilla extract are staples. The only ingredient that's somewhat unusual is cream of tartar, something from the spice aisle, though we did already had some. In other words I didn't need to buy anything to make these, which is always nice.
Quick recipe version:
1. Preheat oven to 375, prepare baking sheets (tin foil/parchment paper/silicone mats?)
2. Mix up the cinnamon sugar topping in a small bowl
3. Start dough, combine dry stuff (flour+tartar+soda+cinnamon+salt) in a medium bowl
4. In a third, large bowl (I used our stand mixer), beat butter and sugar until creamy
5. Add egg+yolk+vanilla, mix until well combined, may need a spatula for sides
6. Add dry mixture slowly, again scraping as needed, dough will be thick
7. Take ~1.5 tbsp of dough at a time, form into a ball, roll in topping mix
8. Space balls (heh) ~3 inches apart on baking sheets, bake 9 minutes
9. After removal from oven, press down on each cookie with a spoon to flatten somewhat
10. Leave on baking sheet ~10 minutes before moving to cooling rack
Notes:
I wanted to use the silicone mats my wife has. They're super nice for cleanup but are hard to remove with cookies on them, they're sticky you see. This resulted in using three baking sheets and causing some difficulty with finding space for everything during the baking process. Not a big deal but next time I'll probably just use parchment paper.
Maybe getting only an egg yolk is old news for you, but I've only done it once or twice before. What works for me, after cracking the shell in half, is to pour the yolk back and forth while slowly letting the egg white drip into a container below.
The scoop we have for cookies is only about 1 tbsp so I just took an overflowing amount to approximate the amount desired. I got a better handle on it as I went on and the cookies slowly got larger with each batch.
To make sure the spacing was okay I only did 8 cookies on the sheet at a time. I ended up getting 32 cookies so that was 4 batches. Also Sally's recipe says to bake for 10 minutes but everything bakes fast in our oven. 9 minutes ended up being perfect.
After taking the cookies out of the oven I would first get the next batch in and then going back to the sheet I pulled out and flattening the cookies. Don't completely smash them, certainly, but press down firmly to flatten and get the shape you want. I also, while the cookies were still hot, sprinkled extra topping on each cookie at this stage. There was a bunch left over even after each ball was rolled in it and more sugar is better.
That's it. Like most other cookies combine sugar and butter then add dry ingredients. With these you also roll in a cinnamon sugar mixture before baking and then flatten them after they come out. Give them a try if you want. We already crushed them, with some help from a few friends that came over this weekend, and we'll make them again.
I’m looking forward to the next batch!