Double Take: Snickerdoodles from Featured Blog Smitten Kitchen

It's all Mary's fault. No really, I mean it. If she hadn't bought a tub of cookies from April's son's band cookie drive, we wouldn't be walking down this cookie road today. She just HAD to buy the snickerdoodle dough and bake some in the break room toaster oven. She just HAD to practically force me to try one since they smelled soooo delicious. Obviously, I wouldn't have been compelled to think about cookies ALL WEEK after trying them if it hadn't been for her...Right?!


That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ...(Um incidentally, if anyone else wants to force me to try some other cookies, I'm probably mostly a cookie pushover. Unless they're store bought..or sugar cookies...A girl has to draw the line somewhere.)


I'll admit it. I'm like the story if you give a mouse a cookie. If you give a Tabs a cookie, she's going to want some milk, maybe a spoonful of peppermint chocolate chunk ice cream, maybe a cone while you're at it....you know it goes. I do have pretty good willpower. However, after trying one cookie, it was in my head ALL WEEK. When Mel asked me what I wanted to make off our list, my response was um, nothing interests me. She was like, c'mon something must  be in your head. Isn't there ANYTHING you have had a taste for this week? After a bit of poking and prodding, I admitted I really only wanted cookies. I know.... VERY health conscious of me. Its ok to have cookies sometimes though. While I had more than one kind of cookie in my head (and plenty of ways to change them) I wound up landing on this snickerdoodle recipe. I promised Mel I would really try to kind of stick with the recipe. I know she won't be surprised to read that I mostly stuck with it but was unable to resist at least a little bit of change. I also tried some variations but did stick with the general recipe (for the most part). 


I found I wanted a good excuse to bring them somewhere to share. I wasn't planning to super bowl party and honestly my weekend was planned as being pretty unplanned (a rarity). I decided to bake some before Hapkido (a super fun martial art, try it) class Saturday morning. Its tough for people to resist hot cookies, especially after you've gotten some good exercise. I also returned the favor to Mary by baking a few in the break room toaster oven. I'll go ahead and share the recipe and then let you know what people thought.

Snickerdoodles
(Cinnamon sugar (front), cocoa/cinnamon (right), cocoa/hazelnut/cinnamon (left))

Snickerdoodles
(Adapted from Smitten Kitchen and Martha Stewart)

Yield: 36-48,  3 to 4-inch cookies. 

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
16 tablespoons (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2 tsp vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups + 1/4 c. sugar, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs

How To:

Preheat the oven to 400°, with one rack in top third and one rack in bottom third of oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper; set aside.

Sift together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 3/4 cups sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down sides of bowl. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat to combine. Add dry ingredients, and beat to combine. 

Smitten Kitchen needed to chill hers for an hour. I had no trouble scooping with a melon  baller or even my hands. I think this may vary with flour type used. If you're in a hurry, you can always add a little extra flour (2- 4 Tbsp) to be able to scoop. I used White Lily flour and the indicated measurements and had no trouble or need for extra flour. 

In a small bowl, combine remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small ice-cream scoop or melon baller to form balls of the dough, and roll in cinnamon sugar. Place about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in center and begin to crack (they will brown but only if you have overcooked them), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after five minutes. 

Note: IF you want some alternate flavors, try mixing instant coffee or cocoa with your cookie coating mixture. If you dislike cinnamon, substitute cardamom. Cardamom is quite a treat in cookies.

Also, this recipe is easily halved. It produces a lot of cookies even with a half batch.

Snickerdoodles for Hapkido class.

Cocoa and Cinnamon sugar coated cookie front and center. Hazelnut, cocoa, and cinnamon sugar cookies to back and right. Cinnamon sugar to left.

Reaction:

These were great. I was less of a fan of the chocolate and coffee coatings than I expected to be. This could be in part due to my rolling the cookies in cinnamon sugar mixture and then rolling the other ingredients of days later. I've tried the cardamom substitution for cinnamon before and it was tasty. I'd highly recommend it. The cookies I made for hapkido quickly disappeared. The ones in the toaster oven were also ahem...taken care of quickly. Mary and I preferred the cinnamon the best. The ones taken to hapkido were all cinnamon/sugar...and devoured quickly. 

These remind me of a cookie I used to get at Halloween. I know, Halloween might not make most people think of cookies. One lady on our trick or treating route always passed out some candy and 2 gingerbread men. They weren't heavily nutmeg flavored and I really liked them. Eating these reminded me of the same flavor in her little men and made me think of Mrs. Wiles and smile. I'd recommend these for good memories and they're great with milk, hot cocoa and um, well they're good with peppermint chocolate ice cream too. :)

Mel's not a cinnamon fan so hop over to her blog to see which cookie she picked from Smitten Kitchen and what she thought of it.