This is a recipe for snickerdoodles, an American cookie jar favourite which is like a sugar cookie coated with cinnamon and sugar. Personally, I like to make these during the winter and enjoy them with hot chocolate or hot tea. They take a little while to prepare because the dough needs chilling. However, the ingredients are simple and the dough is easy to work with to roll into balls. And they last in a sealed container for a week or two, if you can resist eating them for that long!
I have not found a citation for where the name snickerdoodles originates, although there are several theories. In any case, they definitely do not have any Snickers bars in them. The most plausible story I have seen via Wikipedia is that they are named after a German word, German word Schneckennudel. This means snail noodle and may refer to a German cinnamon roll.
Ingredients
Dough
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
Coating
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
First, in a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, sugar and eggs together until creamy. Next, mix in cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Finally, add flour and mix well. Chill the batter for at least two hours.
Preheat oven to 180C (350F)
In the meantime, combine the coating ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
Then shape chilled dough into balls about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Drop the dough balls into the cinnamon sugar mixture and coat the entire surface. Place the balls on ungreased baking sheets about 2 inches apart.
Bake in pre-heated oven for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Finally, remove from oven and wait for one minute before removing cookies to cooling racks.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies. Tastes very good with hot chocolate!
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