Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Modern Snickerdoodles


I like cookies, love them, in fact. Cookies, as you all should know by now, are my favorite dessert. But when it comes to Snickerdoodles, I can pretty much take them or leave them. Not so with Mr. O-P who considers them among his favorites. But despite the fact that they are high ranking in his cookie-loving world, I seldom make them because, well, they're trouble. I like a cookie that I can scoop and plop on a cookie sheet and shove into the oven. Rolling into balls and dipping in sugar is for Christmas and other cookie-centered holidays, not for an ordinary weekday like today.

A recipe in Beach House Baking (my new favorite cookbook) has changed all of this. Author Lei Shishak has come up with a simple method for making them that makes the old way obsolete. She has replaced tedious with this I-can't-believe-I-didn't-come-up-with-it-myself method that will make Mr. O-P a happy, and perhaps, pudgy man. Instead of all of the rolling and dipping, her version is made the same as any other drop cookie, but these are coated with the cinnamon sugar mixture after baking. Easy!  And boy are they good, thanks to the addition of cinnamon in the dough. My only complaint is that the recipe only makes a baker's dozen. This is a recipe that needs doubling, tripling, perhaps quadrupling. I also found that there is way too much cinnamon sugar mixture* for the small amount of cookies, so I'd suggest cutting this in half unless, like me, you store it away for the next batch.

Modern Snickerdoodles
From Beach House Baking by Lei Shishak

Cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground Indonesian cinnamon (I used Vietnamese)
1/4 teaspoon salt

Cinnamon Sugar*
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground Indonesian cinnamon (ditto on the Vietnamese)

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Set aside.

In a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add egg and mix until incorporated. Scrape bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix until combined.

Scoop the dough onto the prepared trays (I use a 1-ounce ice cream scoop), and bake for 12-14 minutes, or until the cookies feel firm when pressed gently on top. Remove from oven and let the cookies cool for 10 minutes (I only allowed 5) on the cookie sheet.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Toss the warm cookies in the mixture. Let cool completely on a wire rack.


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1 comment:

Lisa Boyle said...

We love Snickerdoodles here! Thanks for linking up with "Try a New Recipe Tuesday." I look forward to seeing what you'll share this week.http://our4kiddos.blogspot.com/2014/07/try-new-recipe-tuesday-july-22.html