 | | | Brown Sugar Snickerdoodle Cookies Photos Susie Iventosch | | | | | | If you love snickerdoodles, I think you'll really love this brown sugar version. While snickerdoodles are similar to sugar cookies, they vary in taste and texture due to two key ingredients: cinnamon and cream of tartar. If you don't have cream of tartar in your spice drawer, you will want to add this to your shopping list. The signature tangy flavor of the cookies comes from this key ingredient and it also helps to maintain the soft texture. You'll want to have cream of tartar for the tang, baking soda for the leavening, and brown sugar for this version. In most Snickerdoodle recipes, the cookie dough is made with white sugar, but we just love that caramel taste of brown sugar, so I like to use a combination of brown and white sugar, and it works really well in this recipe.
Once you've made your dough you're going to roll them in cinnamon sugar before baking. The key to making the perfect soft texture in this cookie recipe is to slightly underbake them. You just want to see the edges turn golden-brown and that's about all the heat it takes - maybe 8-10 minutes at 350 F. Also, by using a?cookie scoop you can make perfectly round cookies. My nephew gave me one of these a couple of years ago, and I really love that gadget. Ours is about 1 1/2-inches in diameter and we find that it makes the perfect size cookies.
These cookies stay fresh longer than most. Two weeks after making them, they are still as soft as the day we baked them. Just store them in an airtight container. It's amazing, really. Usually, cookies dry out and get crumbly, but not these. On top of that, you can freeze the dough balls so they're ready to bake in case some unexpected guests pop in, or you just have a sudden hankering for snickerdoodle cookies!
INGREDIENTS
Brown Sugar Snickerdoodle Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
For rolling the dough balls:
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside. Mix the 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 2 tsp. cinnamon in a small bowl for rolling the cookie dough balls in. Set aside.
Place butter in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your standing mixer. Beat butter until light and fluffy. Add both white and brown sugars and continue to beat until fully integrated and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.
Add all dries (flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon and salt), and using the slow speed on your mixer, beat until the dough is thoroughly incorporated.
Form the dough into balls using a cookie scoop (or your hands). The balls should be approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter for 3-inch finished cookies. Roll the balls in the prepared cinnamon-sugar to generously coat the entire dough ball.
Place the sugared dough balls onto the prepared baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 minutes and then check on them. They may need another minute or two, but you really don't want to over bake snickerdoodles! Remove from the oven and cool.
*Note*
These cookies store very well in a plastic container or a baggie for up to two weeks and still remain soft and chewy. You can also freeze the dough if you don't need or want all of your cookies baked at one time. Simply scoop the dough into balls and roll them in the cinnamon sugar. Then freeze the dough just like that in an air-tight container. When you're ready to bake them, take the dough out of the freezer about 15 minutes before baking and bake according to the directions above. |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA