Betty Crocker's Cooky Book: Snickerdoodles

Betty Crocker’s Cooky Book: Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are an American favorite that often gets cast aside by the ever popularized chocolate chip cookie. Finding a great dough that is easy to roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture and will puff up to form those great little crack lines can be difficult. Is this recipe the winner? Maybe.

Snickerdoodles:

1 cup shortening

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

2 tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. cinnamon

After preheating the oven to 400 degrees, mix together the eggs, sugar and shortening. In a separate bowl mix the flour, soda, cream of tartar and salt. Mix the two bowls together. Scoop the dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Roll the balls in cinnamon/sugar mixture and place on ungreased baking sheet. Cookies should be finished baking in 8 to 10 minutes.

The recipe calls for 1 cup of shortening and in parenthesis states part butter or margarine. I’m guessing the recipe is implying that you can use butter, margarine, shortening or a mixture of these to make up 1 cup. Anyone who has made the exact same cookie with all shortening versus all butter knows that this can make a significant difference in how the dough sets up and the all around taste of a cookie. I suppose the deciding factor is your taste buds but it would’ve been nice to have the ingredient list a bit more specific. I ended using half shortening and half butter in an attempt for the best of both worlds.

The recipe calls for rolling the dough in two tablespoons of sugar and two teaspoons of cinnamon. Judging the dough in my mixing bowl I did not think this cinnamon sugar mixture was going to be enough, but it worked out to be a perfect amount. It wasn’t difficult to roll each ball but there wasn’t so much mixture leftover that I felt like I was wasting any.

I had to question the recipe’s call for a 400 degree oven. I rarely make cookies at such a high temperature but stuck with the directions for at least the first batch. I felt like the cinnamon was going to burn before the cookie was finished and ended up lowering the temperature to 375 degrees.

Pulling them out of the oven yielded beautiful results with only one challenge: getting them off the pan. Spraying my cookie sheets with non stick cooking spray is not a common occurrence for me, but for these cookies it was entirely necessary.

After conquering the cookie sheet most of the cookies made their way to the cooling rack and eventually a storage bag for optimum freshness. A select few made it to my mouth and they were sweet. They were soft but a little crumbly. The texture was almost cake like and the second cookie required a glass of milk. I’m not a huge fan of cinnamon but this cookie contained just enough to smell fantastic without being overwhelming.

The next day I packed a few into a bag for a snack and noticed a significant difference in my cookie. The cookie seemed to dry out and harden in as little as 24 hours. It had become extremely crumbly and crispy; not nearly as delightful as it was the evening before.

If this is the recipe you want to work with I suggest freezing the dough and breaking it down into smaller portions unless your family can devour the batch in just a couple of days. For a small family like mine this recipe does not hold up to our week of freshness standards before becoming hard enough to break a tooth. My search for the perfect snickerdoodle recipe continues.