By ShowMeStepByStepPublished Updated
Based on a video by The Anthony Kitchen.
A snickerdoodle is a thick buttery vanilla cookie with a crunchy cinnamon sugar crust. It is a Christmas cookie that pleases absolutely everyone, which is not true of most Christmas cookies.
Two things here are worth noting. There is no cream of tartar, which is traditional but which most people do not keep. A tablespoon of lemon juice activates the baking soda the same way, and the cookies do not taste of lemon.
And there is no chilling step. The dough goes straight from the bowl to the tray, so this is a same-hour cookie.
The texture comes from creaming the butter and sugar properly. Three full minutes, and the butter genuinely at room temperature.
8 steps · about 4 minutes.Check off each step as you go and your progress saves automatically.
In a medium bowl, whisk together two and three quarter cups of all-purpose flour, a teaspoon of baking soda and a teaspoon of fine sea salt.
Whisking now means the soda and salt are evenly through the flour. Dumped in later they leave pockets, and a bite of raw baking soda is memorable for the wrong reason.
Butter has to be at room temperature to cream properly, and nobody plans that far ahead.
Microwave the stick for 10 seconds, give it a quarter turn, then another 10 seconds. Check it. Repeat if needed.
You want it soft enough to dent with a finger but still holding its shape. Melted butter will not cream and the cookies spread flat.
Add one and a half cups of granulated sugar and a cup of room temperature unsalted butter to a large bowl. Mix on medium high for three full minutes.
Three minutes feels long. Set a timer and actually do it. You are beating air into the butter, and that air is what gives these their thickness.
It is ready when the mixture has lightened in colour and looks fluffy.
Add two large eggs, then a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and a teaspoon of pure vanilla extract.
Crack the eggs into a separate bowl first. Fishing shell out of a finished cookie dough is a genuinely bad time.
The lemon is there to activate the baking soda, standing in for cream of tartar. It does not make the cookies taste of lemon.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix just until the dough comes together.
Stop there. Every extra turn past that develops gluten, and gluten makes a snickerdoodle tough instead of soft.
Stir a third of a cup of granulated sugar with two teaspoons of ground cinnamon in a small bowl.
This coating is the entire difference between a snickerdoodle and a plain butter cookie.
A tablespoon of sparkling sugar in the mix is optional and looks genuinely festive on a cookie plate.
Scoop the dough, roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar until fully coated, and set them on a tray lined with parchment or a silicone mat.
Space them at least two inches apart. These spread, and cookies that bake into each other have to be broken apart.
Round up any ragged edges with your fingers before they go in.
Bake at 375F for about 14 minutes.
They are ready when the edges have just tinted golden brown. The centres will still look soft and slightly underdone, which is exactly right - they set as they cool.
Let them cool on the tray for a few minutes before moving them.
Tip
Pull them a minute early rather than a minute late. A snickerdoodle baked to fully firm in the oven is a hard cookie by the time it cools.
Keep going
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How to Make Snickerdoodles
How to Make Snickerdoodles
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Question 1 of 5
What actually separates a snickerdoodle from a plain butter cookie?
Quick reference
5 questions, answers, and one-line explanations. Tap to expand.
1.What actually separates a snickerdoodle from a plain butter cookie?
Answer: The cinnamon sugar coating rolled on before baking
The coating is the defining feature, and it goes on before the tray not after.
2.Why cream the butter and sugar for a full three minutes?
Answer: You are beating in the air that gives them height
That whipped-in air is what keeps them thick instead of flat.
3.What goes wrong if you microwave the butter until it melts?
Answer: It will not cream, and the cookies spread flat
Melted butter holds no air, so there is nothing to give the cookie structure.
4.Why stop mixing the moment the dough comes together?
Answer: Extra turns develop gluten and toughen them
Gluten is what makes a snickerdoodle tough rather than soft.
5.Lemon juice in a snickerdoodle. What job is it doing?
Answer: Standing in for cream of tartar to work the soda
Baking soda needs an acid, and the lemon supplies it without tasting of lemon.
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