Recipe: Snickerdoodles

The Ingredients

3 cups all purpose flour (375 g)

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon (I use Saigon cinnamon)

1 pinch nutmeg

½ teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1 large egg, whisked

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

My personal additions:

1 teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon clover honey

Topping: 2 teaspoons cinnamon,

a pinch of nutmeg

1/3 cup white sugar

The Way Of Preparing

Preheat oven to 375°F/190°C.

Prep your cookie sheets with either parchment paper or use silicone baking mats.

Do not, do not, do not grease your pans. Just don’t do it.

Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt onto a paper plate or piece of parchment paper.

Cream the living daylights out of the butter and sugars.

Add the beaten egg, honey if using, and extract.

Slowly add the dry ingredients, usually in three to five parts. If you’re using a mixer, scrape down your bowl often and go SLOWLY.

Using a cookie scoop, portion out about 2 ounces of dough per dough ball.

Roll in the cinnamon and sugar mix.

These spread quite a bit, so leave about 2-3 inches per cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, turning the pans halfway through.

The cookies will be very fluffy and soft when they first come out of the oven. You can use the bottom of a glass either before baking or after to press them out a little.

Cool on the sheet for five minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Store, as usual, in an airtight container for up to a week. I’ve never had the problem of them going stale. Right, Sean Michael?

Notes Use a good cookie scoop to get them all the same size.

Freeze premade and topping rolled dough balls on a cookie sheet. Transfer to a gallon freezer bag. They will keep for up to six months.

Add two minutes to the cooking time when making from frozen.

These can absolutely be baked in a countertop toaster oven.

Tweaks Instead of store-bought vanilla extract, try dark rum infused with split vanilla bean pods, or cinnamon whiskey infused with vanilla bean paste. The honey is my secret to super soft cookies. You can add cinnamon chips to these to really punch up the flavor. Memories

Memories:

I’ve made these since my first home economics class in my Freshman year of high school. That would be circa 1999, when my youngest brother Batman was born. My middle brother, Sean Michale, has been begging for a care package with them in it for years. Maybe I’ll whip up a batch and send them out to him sometime soon. Because this is a spell cookie for me, for happiness, it can take a lot out of me to make. I don’t eat many. But I love to make them.