Sweet ol’ snickerdoodles
Cinnamon cookies are a can’t-stop-eating-them, old-fashioned treat
Ienjoy learning about the history of foods and how some recipes got their quirky names. That inquisitiveness was sparked again on a rainy day last week, when I decided this was an ideal time to bake cookies.
The only problem was that I didn’t know what kind to make. So I plunked myself on my couch with a pile of cookbooks and began leafing through them for inspiration.
I finally decided to make snickerdoodles after reading the introduction to the recipe for those cookies in a book called Southern Country Cooking from the Loveless Café. The Loveless Café is a bustling roadside eatery just southwest of Nashville that has been in business more than 60 years.
The book got me keen to make snickerdoodles because it described them as a can’t-stopeating-them, old-fashioned treat — just what I was in the mood for. The book also said these cookies were great for parties — in other words, sharing. That is what I had planned to do with some of my cookies to help limit my consumption, just in case I couldn’t stop eating them.
I was also inspired to make snickerdoodles because I was curious to learn how the cookie got its funky name, and hoped I might find out while reviewing other recipes for them.
As a I already knew, because I had made them before, a snickerdoodle is a type of sugar cookie that’s rolled in cinnamon sugar before it’s baked.
But when I dug a little deeper, I discovered that where the cookie originates from, what is added to the dough and how it got the name snickerdoodle is, fact-wise, more crumbly.
For example, the Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink says the snickerdoodle hails from New England and its name is simply a 19th-century nonsense word for a quickly made confection.
The New Food Lover’s Companion also says snickerdoodles originate from New England and agrees the name does not appear to have a particular meaning or purpose, other than fun.
The Oxford Companion to Food disagrees and says a snickerdoodle is a specialty of the Pennsylvania Dutch, a community with many sweet biscuit and cookie recipes.
Other books, including the original version of The Joy of Cooking, speculate that the name snickerdoodle originates from the German ‘schneckenudeln,” a cinnamon-dusted, snail-shaped sweet roll.
Some of the sources said that snickerdoodles contain nutmeg, raisins and nuts, and that might have been the case back in the 19th century, but most modern recipes I read did not contain those items.
Most of those modern recipes, though, are rich with butter, shortening, or a mix of the two. That richness plus the cookie’s characteristically crackly surface and aromatic, cinnamon-spiced coating explain why it’s hard to stop eating them.
In many snickerdoodle recipes, you’ll also see cream of tartar called for. That’s because the baking soda also called for in many snickerdoodle recipes needs something acidic such as cream of tarter to activate it.
The baking time for snickerdoodles is another thing that varies from recipe to recipe. Some call for the cookies to be baked as little as eight minutes, others as many as 17. My recipe calls for 12 minutes, yielding a cookie that’s delightfully crisp on the outside and deliciously soft in the centre.
Try the recipe and I think you’ll grin, not snicker or call me a doodle, an archaic word for a foolish person, but you likely will reach for another snickerdoodle.
Snickerdoodles
Addictive, cinnamon-spiced, crisp-on-the-outside, soft-in-thecentre cookies.
Preparation: 30 minutes Cooking time: 12 minutes per sheet Makes: 30 cookies
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 2 tsp cream of tartar 1 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature 1/2 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 2 large eggs 2 tsp pure vanilla extract 2 Tbsp granulated sugar 2 tsp ground cinnamon
Place the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Place the butter, shortening and 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar in a second bowl, or bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, and beat until light and well-combined. Now mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and mix until well combined.
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line three large baking sheets with parchment paper (see Note). Combine the 2 Tbsp granulated sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.
Roll a 1 1/2 Tbsp piece of dough into a 1 1/2-inch ball. Roll the ball in the cinnamon sugar, thoroughly coat it, and then set on a baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough, leaving a 4-inch space between cookies.
Using the palm of your hand, press each cookie into a 1/2-inch thick disc. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 12 minutes, until very light golden.
Sprinkle the hot cookies with any remaining cinnamon sugar in the bowl. Cool cookies on a rack, and then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to two weeks.
Note: I used three baking sheets to make the cookies because they do spread out a bit.
Eric’s options: If you would like to make the ultra-decadent, snickerdoodle sandwich cookies stuffed with maple butter cream that you see in the photo, make the cookie dough as described above. Now, using smaller 3/4 Tbsp amounts, roll the dough into 60, one-inch balls. (You’ll get smaller cookies by doing that, which will be a better size for sandwiching together.) Divide the balls among the prepared baking sheets and press them into discs, as described above.
Bake these smaller cookies, one sheet at a time, for only 10 minutes, or until very light golden. Now cool cookies on baking rack.
To make maple butter cream, place 1 cup softened butter, 2 cups icing sugar, sifted, and 1/2 cup maple syrup in a bowl and beat until well-combined and smooth.
Spread the bottom side of one cookie with about 1 Tbsp of the butter cream. Set on another cookie, bottom side down. Repeat with the remaining cookies and butter cream.