Please welcome guest author and pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon of Eggbeater, who shares with us her secrets for making snickerdoodles. ~Elise
What is a Snickerdoodle?
While people argue about where the name Snickerdoodle comes from, few people who love them waste time with words. Here is a cookie with a following!
Tender and crisp, plain and aromatic, sweet with a dash of salt, the Snickerdoodle has made quite a place for itself in the canon of cookies. But as loyal as its fans are, it’s not the easiest cookie to find on bakery shelves.
A Snickerdoodle cookie has two signature characteristics: an exterior of cinnamon sugar, cracked on top, and a perfect textural balance of crunchy and pliable.
With other cookies born from the same method — creaming, getting just the right texture can feel like an impossible journey with way too many cookies to eat along the way.
Snickerdoodles, on the other hand, have a built-in fail-proof ingredient, saving them from the place where cookies that aren’t “just right” go. Cornstarch.
Why Cornstarch is so Important for Snickerdoodles
It’s simple and yet extraordinary: cornstarch absorbs moisture, binds the dough like flour but has no gluten. Gluten is a protein in wheat flour that creates a “toughness” in many baked goods. “Do not overmix” is an instruction based on this property.
In Snickerdoodle dough, cornstarch is what makes those edges light as air, but provide a middle you can sink your teeth into.
Snickerdoodle Cookies Demand the best Ingredients
This is not a puffy cookie, it spreads a lot. It’s simple, meaning there are few ingredients. Please use the most delicious butter you can find.
Organic cinnamon will also make a huge difference, and if you can get your hands on true Ceylon cinnamon, Snickerdoodle cookies all over the land, and I, salute you.
Snickerdoodles Recipe
- Prep time: 25 minutes
- Cook time: 15 minutes
- Yield: Makes 12-18 cookies
It’s important that all your ingredients be room temperature when making the cookie dough.
Ingredients
Snickerdoodles
- 4 tablespoons Unsalted Butter
- 1/3 cup Brown Sugar
- 1/3 cup White, Granulated Sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1 tablespoon Cornstarch
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
Cinnamon Sugar – whisk well to incorporate
- ½ Cup Sugar
- 3 Tablespoons Ground cinnamon
Method
1 Preheat your oven to 350°F. Beat the butter until it’s soft, smooth and light.
2 Add sugars, salt: Add both of the sugars to the beaten butter and mix until they are fully incorporated, and lighter in color. Add salt.
Beat until the dough is light and fluffy.
3 Add egg: Stirring vigorously, add the egg to the mixture and beat until the batter looks uniform.
4 Fold flour mixture into wet: Sift the flour, cornstarch and baking soda, and fold, in three additions, into the butter egg mixture to create the cookie dough.
5 Form balls of dough with a soup spoon and plop them in cinnamon sugar, swirling to coat.
6 Flatten dough balls on lined cookie sheet: On a buttered or parchment lined cookie sheet, place the dough balls 3 inches apart. Flatten the dough slightly and sprinkle about half a tablespoons worth of cinnamon sugar on the flattened surface.
7 Bake: Put into the 350°F oven. Set the first timer for 7 minutes. Turn the pan around and set a second timer for 7 minutes. If you are using a buttered pan they might be done at this point, or need another minute. If you’re using parchment, cookies will take 2-3 minutes more. You are looking for golden edges and a blonde middle.
8 Cool: Cool on a baking sheet and eat as soon as possible. Snickerdoodles will keep in an airtight container, at room temperature for 3 days, but they are best eaten the day they’re made.
