one of my coworkers requested snickerdoodles for her birthday, so i decided to try my hand at what i had wrongly convinced myself was a complicated cookie. since my mom was out of town for the night, i used a friend’s recipe instead. everyone loved the cookies, but they were denser than my mom’s (it’s possible i undercooked them) and something about them tasted off to me. i am notoriously judgmental of my own baking, but i decided to try again with my mom’s recipe anyway.
this is an adapted version of my mom’s recipe, with a few changes from things i liked about kait’s. i also bought fresh eggs and cinnamon in case they had been the problem in the first cookies. i’m not sure which change did the trick, but these tasted much more like mom’s- light, crispy, and just begging for a cup of tea to go with them. they also survived being mailed all over the country, since i had to do SOMETHING with the second batch ;)
snickerdoodles
for cookies:
1 1/2 cups (3/4 lb, 3 sticks) butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
for topping:
2 tbsp cinnamon
3 tbsp sugar
01. preheat oven to 375 degrees.
02. in a large bowl or an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until creamy. beat in eggs and vanilla.
03. in another bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and cinnamon; gradually add to butter mixture, blending thoroughly.
04. in a small bowl, combine cinnamon and sugar for topping. roll dough into 1 inch balls (if you have a small ice cream scoop, use that), then roll in cinnamon-sugar mixture to coat. place about 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
05. bake in 375 degree oven for about 11 minutes or until lightly browned. let cool on baking sheets for about a minute, then transfer to racks and let cool completely. makes about 55 cookies.
tips: this dough is thick (and delicious!) so keep an eye on your mixer while you’re adding the flour. also, in between batches, stick your dough in the fridge and your extra pan in the freezer. it’ll help the cookies not get melty before you can get them in the oven. and finally, my mom said to grease the cookie sheets but i didn’t and had no problems. if your sheets aren’t non-stick or just suck, i would probably use parchment paper instead of greasing. but i hate greasing pans, so what do i know?
