The Perfect Snickerdoodle Cookies

This is a recipe that's been used in my family since my great, great grandmother. It's always been a family favorite, but it used to yield flatter cookies that would get crunchy a few hours after they cooled. As I practiced making it, I adjusted the amount of certain ingredients, achieving a recipe that produces the ultimate balance of maintaining soft and crunchy, that doesn't fade as the cookie cools. 

This is a go-to recipe for everything now, especially because I've yet to meet anyone who doesn't like them. It can be rolled out and cut into shapes, making it perfect for family-gift bags for christmas or for friends' birthdays. 

Now I present, the steps to achieve perfect  balance of snicker and doodle. 

Start with gathering the ingredients, making sure you have enough of each. That's always my downfall, I get everything out and discover half-way through that I'm almost out of flour or something. Don't make the same mistakes as me, learn from them.

You will need:


- Butter                               1 Cup [2 sticks]

- Granulated Sugar         1½ Cups 

- Eggs                                 2

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- All-Purpose Flour           2½ Cups

- Cream of Tartar              2 tsp.

- Baking Soda                   1 tsp.

- Salt                                  ¼ tsp.
 
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- Granulated Sugar            2 Tbsp.

- Cinnamon                          2 tsp.

You'll need a spatula, a fork, a couple of bowls, and some means of mixing your ingredients. I always recommend using an actual mixer, like the old hunk a' junk I use depicted in this photo. However, if you don't have a mixer, a bowl and whisk will work too. Just be ready for a lot of stirring.  

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. 

First, soften your butter. You can do this by either leaving it out on the counter for a few hours, or if you don't have that much time, unwrapping it and putting it in the microwave. 

My butter was being kept in the fridge, so it wasn't frozen. I put the unwrapped butter in the microwave for 16 seconds on high to get it nice and soft, without melting it. If yours is frozen, you'll have to experiment with the time a little bit. I recommend doing it in 10-second increments until it's soft. 

Next, add the softened butter to the bowl. 

Next, add 1½ Cups of sugar to the bowl with the butter.

"Cream" the ingredients together, AKA: Mix on a high speed, yielding a fluffy mixture of sugar and butter.

Mix in each egg one at a time. This seems unimportant, but it helps the texture of the cookies. 

Next, pull out a separate bowl and, if you haven't already, the dry ingredients you're about to use. Double check that you have enough of each ingredient. 

- All-Purpose Flour           2½ Cups

- Cream of Tartar              2 tsp.

- Baking Soda                   1 tsp.

- Salt                                  ¼ tsp.

In this new bowl, start by adding 2½ Cups of all-purpose flour.

Next, add 2 tsp. of "Cream of Tartar" to your flour. 

Next, add 1 tsp. of Baking Soda to your flour and "Cream of Tartar" bowl.

Next, add ¼ tsp. of salt to your dry ingredients mixture.

Stir your dry ingredients together. 

Then add your dry ingredients to your butter, sugar, and eggs and mix it all together. 

NOTE:

If you followed all the instructions thus far, your dough shouldn't be overly sticky or overly thick. If it is sticky, you can add a couple of Tablespoons of flour to help.

If your dough is a little thicker then it should be, you're cookies will just end up a little fluffier then the end result I demonstrate in this tutorial. 

Elevation and humidity often mess with recipes just a little bit. If this is the case, try adjusting the recipe slightly, adding a little more or a little less flour to help counteract what you can't control. 

Now, in a smaller bowl, take 2 Tbsp. of sugar and mix it with 2 tsp. of Cinnamon. This will be the cinnamon sugar that coats your cookies. 

Repeat:

- Granulated Sugar            2 Tbsp.

- Cinnamon                          2 tsp.

Next, roll your cookies into approximately 1-inch balls, and coat them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. 

Place your cinnamon-coated cookie balls on a cookie sheet. I space them about 2-3 inches apart to ensure that my cookies don't run into each other. I like them to be nearly-perfect circles. And no, in case you're asking, I don't have OCD.... 

Anyway, I cook 9 cookies on a sheet at a time. 

Put your cookie sheet into the oven. In the time it took mixing these together, it should have reached the specified 400-degree temperature. Unless, that is, if you didn't preheat it. If that's the case, preheat it now and wait until it reaches 400 degrees before you put your cookies in. 

Once the cookies are in the oven, set the timer for 7 minutes. The picture looks like it says seven o'clock, but it doesn't. That's me setting the timer for 7 minutes.

Once it's set, just make sure your around when the timer goes off. I've made that mistake more than once...

If the cookies don't look done after 7 minutes, keep them in for another minute or two. They usually will be good and ready after 7 minutes, but you never know whose oven is going to cook a little differently. 

Once the timer goes off, take out the tray and let the cookies sit for a minute or two. If you try to pick them up, or scoop them up with a spatula, they'll tear and/or get squished. They need a minute to set before you dig in. 

After they set, you should have perfect, delicious, remarkable snickerdoodles. 

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial, and I really hope it gives you the same results I always get out of it. Thanks for reading!