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


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.

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.

Wet your hands and scoop out 2 tbsp of dough at a time. Roll the dough into balls and coat with the cinnamon sugar.

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.


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.

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.