Snickerdoodles

After baking two cakes in a row (only one of which I posted about here obviously), I figured it was time to move on to a different type of dessert. I decided that snickerdoodles would be my next project since I not only had all the ingredients, but had been meaning to bake some for my friend for a while.

Snickerdoodles and I have something of a love hate relationship. I love the way they taste, but I absolutely hate how messy they are to make. Yes, baking in general can be very chaotic at times, but since I’m so pampered I just can’t stand getting my hands dirty. It’s something that I’m just going to have to grow out of… someday… Until then, snickerdoodles will be a rare treat in my household.

The recipe that I like to use comes from Simple Old-Fashioned Baking, but I tweeked it a bit.


For this recipe I used unsalted butter, eggs, flour, sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda, ground cinnamon, and almond extract. I tend to throw in almond extract into a lot of recipes since the bottle I have is so darn big, but trust me when I say that it works very well to compliment the cinnamon sugary taste of snickerdoodles.

Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt together in a bowl and then set it aside. Next, in a medium mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, almond extract, and eggs. Stir in flour mixture and then place dough into fridge for at least one hour. Believe me when I say that it’s best to chill this dough, because the next step works best when its firm.

Preheat your oven to 350°F and in a small bowl blend together four tablespoons of sugar and one teaspoon of cinnamon (you can add a little more if you want, but keep in mind that one teaspoon can go a long way). Take dough out of fridge.

Now here’s where things get messy. Take two spoons and gather a small bit of dough, then roll the dough into a ball. Place your ball of dough into the cinnamon sugar mixture and roll it around making sure to cover every inch with powdery goodness. Next place the balls on a cookie sheet, two inches apart, and then flatten them with the bottom of a jar, glass, etc. Don’t overdo it or your cookies will turn into crepes. Basically your cookies should go from this:

To this:


Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating your trays midway through. And then you’re all done! Yummy cookies to share with your friends. All you need now is glass of milk.



Snickerdoodles

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 ½ cups plus 4 Tbsp sugar, divided
2 eggs
2 ¼ cups flour
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp almond extract

Directions

Combine flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt together in a bowl. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, cream together butter, sugar, almond extract, and eggs.

Stir in flour mixture and then place dough into fridge for at least one hour. Believe me when I say that it’s best to chill this dough, because the next step works best when its firm.

Preheat oven to 350°F and in a small bowl blend together four tablespoons of sugar and one teaspoon of cinnamon. Take dough out of refrigerator then roll into a ball. Place your ball of dough into the cinnamon sugar mixture and roll it around. Next place the balls on a cookie sheet, two inches apart, and then flatten them with the bottom of a jar, glass, etc.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, rotating your trays midway through. Yields approximately 4 dozen cookies.