Snickerdoodles Recipe
By
Kate Ramos
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Snickerdoodles, buttery cookies rolled in cinnamon-sugar, are a staple at bake sales and holiday gatherings. Their characteristic sour note comes from cream of tartar, which before the advent of baking powder was used in conjunction with baking soda as a leavening agent.
This recipe was featured as part of our Back-to-School Bake Sale story and our Baked Sweets photo gallery.
INGREDIENTS
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 12 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), at room temperature
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Place 1/4 cup of the sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl and mix until evenly combined; set aside.
- Combine flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl and whisk to aerate and break up any lumps; set aside.
- Combine butter and remaining 1 1/4 cups sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla and continue beating until eggs are fully incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add flour mixture. Mix on low speed until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds.
- Form tablespoon-size balls of dough with your hands and roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Place on a baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
- Bake cookies until golden brown and crackly on top but still soft in the middle, about 11 minutes. Immediately remove from the baking sheet and cool on a rack. Repeat with remaining dough.
I made these this past weekend, and while I was surprised they weren't puffy like other Snickerdoodles I've tasted, they were nice and crispy with a "snap" when I bit into them! Maybe I cooked them too long, but they were still EASY and YUMMY!!
These cookies are delicious - haven't had them in years. Now I must bake some!
Delicious recipe, but I found that it is a bit salty. I'm curious -- could the kosher salt be to blame? This is the second baking/dessert recipe I have used from CHOW (the other being the very blueberry muffins), and both seemed just a bit too salty. The odd thing was, it wasn't a general saltiness, but rather salty "pockets" that threw off the balance. This led me to believe that the kosher salt was not dissolving entirely, resulting in some bites being saltier than others. I followed the recipe exactly (with unsalted butter, etc.), except for using the brand of kosher salt that CHOW recommends, which I could not find in my local grocery store. Is there any way to remedy this problem? Are some varieties of kosher salt coarser than others?
A variation on this recipe is to roll the cookie dough in a mixture of Five-Spice powder and sugar, instead of cinnamon. It makes an excellent cookie that has folks asking me when I going to make them again.
Flour and tartar is a substitute for baking powder. It probably thickens the texture more to use the tartar but if you don't have it use a smaller portion of baking powder.
Great recipe. Pretty much fool proof. Cookies didn't last the afternoon.
cream of tartar also adds that cakey texture inside the (hopefully) more crisp exterior. My wife and usually make these in large batches for the holidays and found that stickiing the batter in the fridge while two trays bake, then putting cold dough on cold pans, makes for an excellent result
Looks yummy. I don't think I've ever seen cream of tartar required in a cookie recipe before and it's not something I'd keep on hand just for one recipe. Can it be omitted or something else substituted?