Sunday, December 26, 2010

Snickerdoodles

I made these snickerdoodles on a school day before winter break for my brother's English class Christmas party. It took me 2 hours to prepare, bake and clean up. I think these cookies are pretty time consuming, but they are worth it. The hardest part is rolling the dough into balls and dipping it into the cinnamon sugar mixture because it's a hassle to keep your hands clean and unsticky.

Snickerdoodles
Slightly Adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Baking Book
Photobucket

Ingredients

1 3/4 cups sugar, divided (1 1/2 cup + 1/4 cup)
1 tbsp ground cinnamon (use less cinnamon if you use less than 1/4 cup of the sugar)

Set A
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt


1 cup butter (as opposed to the original 1/2 cup butter+ 1/2 cup vegetable shortening)
2 large eggs

Place the oven rack in the middle of the oven. Preheat oven to 375*F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Mix together the cinnamon and 1/4 cup of sugar in a little bowl for rolling.
Photobucket
Next time, I will use less than 1/4 cup of sugar and less than 1 tbsp of cinnamon because there is a lot leftover.

Whisk together Set A in a medium bowl.

Cream the butter and 1 1/2 cup sugar in a large bowl so that it is light and fluffy, medium speed. Beat the eggs in one at a time until it is evenly distributed. (30 seconds)

Now, with the mixer on low speed, gradually add in Set A until it becomes a dough. (30 seconds) Use a rubber spatula to scrape the sides of the bowl and turn the dough to make sure that it is mixed well.
Photobucket
Wet your hands and scoop out 2 tbsp of dough at a time. Roll the dough into balls and coat with the cinnamon sugar.
Photobucket
Set the balls on the prepared cookie sheets with 2 inches of space in between.

Bake one cookie sheet at a time for around 10-12 minutes. If you want puffier cookies, just bake until the edges are golden brown and the centers are soft and puffy.
Photobucket

If you want flatter cookies, bake for a longer time. Make sure to rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the baking time. Also, if baked only for 10-12 minutes, the cookies will not look fully cooked near the cracks.
Photobucket
These cookies were flatter, but my baking tray was also smaller, so they baked into each other.

Cool the cookies on the cookie sheet for around 10 minutes before cooling them completely on a wire rack.

7 comments:

  1. ooo i've heard about these cinnamon cookies! they look so good! i wonder if they taste better with some filling..yum :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. seeing i got snowed in today--i might try these out!

    Dana xo

    ReplyDelete
  3. thanks grub :) did you have any sugar cookies before? they pretty much taste the same; the only difference is the cinnamon. hmm, I never thought of it before.

    Dana, Thanks for visiting my blog, now I've discovered another wonderful blog! Let me know if you tried it out. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Esther,
    I think I'd finish rolling, then only dip each of the balls into the sugar. Keeps the hands clean.
    I've seen these cookies on lots of blogs, but have never eaten one before.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Wendy, That sounds like a great idea. :) I do some of that sometimes or I just roll, dip, roll and dip, depending on how fast I want to bake the cookies.
    You should try them one day, after eating one it is very hard to stop getting more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I was just browsing your blog again and this title caught my eye. I don't know how I missed it before! Snickerdoodles, what a cool name! I've never heard of this before. I would want to make it without even knowing what it is haha. Cookies look delish! And this is gonna be my favourite word for a while lol :D.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sharon, I totally agree, it is definitely a cool name. I read from my ATK baking book that the name actually came from a German word. I'm glad you enjoyed this post. :) Sorry for replying so late, finals are this week!! Luckily, tomorrow is the last day, excluding my Chinese one on Saturday.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for reading my blog. I love hearing about your thoughts and/or your advice. :)

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails