Archive for: snickerdoodles
The next time you take a stroll down the baking aisle at your local grocery store, take a look at the baking mixes. Where there used to be just cake and brownie mixes, there are now all kinds of different options, including cookie mixes. Cake mixes tend to have an ultra-soft texture to them that is unique to cake mixes, while the cookie mixes, on the other hand, strive to create something that actually tastes like homemade – and have ingredient lists that are much, much closer to the “real thing.” Naturally, I had to try my hand at one of these mixes to see how it turned out and I selected the Betty Crocker Snickerdoodle Cookie Mix, as I recently made a batch of homemade Peppermint Snickerdoodles to compare it with.
The mix includes all of the dry ingredients for the cookie dough and a packet of cinnamon sugar mix that is used tfor rolling the dough before baking. Unlike a cake mix, where you’re simply adding oil and water, this cookie mix calls for real butter and eggs, which are beaten into the mix. The dough was easy to work with and there was more than enough of the cinnamon sugar mixture to cover all of the cookies (it could have done another batch of them, probably). The finished cookies look good and came out with the attractive, crackly tops that I like to see on snickerdoodles. More importantly, the cookies tasted great. They were crisp at the edges and nicely chewy at the center, with good flavors of butter, cinnamon and vanilla. They were slightly more tender than some homemade snickerdoodles, and a lot less dense than any storebought snickerdoodles I’ve ever tasted, but overall I don’t think that anyone would have thought to question whether they were homemade cookies or not.
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Candy canes are a great decoration for a Christmas tree, but they can have a lot of other great culinary uses, as well. For instance, stirring one into a mug of hot chocolate will give you a delicious peppermint hot chocolate that is indulgent and refreshing. They can also be a great addition to holiday cookies, and I don’t just mean as garnish for gingerbread men! These Peppermint Snickerdoodles have a lot of vanilla and mint flavor, with a hint of cinnamon, and a very festive look.
Snickerdoodles are made by rolling relatively plain sugar cookie dough into a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, which gives them a nice flavorful finish, as well as an attractive look. I simply added crushed peppermint to that coating to incorporate mint into this recipe. The trick to getting this recipe just right is to use the right size peppermint pieces. Use candy canes, not super hard candies, and chop them up finely so that they’re about the size of large sprinkles and not as big as, say, chocolate chips. Sift the peppermint mixture through a medium-sized strainer to get rid of the peppermint dust. You can also buy chopped peppermint for garnishes and topping snickerdoodles, which can be a convenient option. When they’re not too big, the peppermint bits will melt a bit into the cookies during baking, giving them a great look and infusing that peppermint flavor even more.
The finished cookies are chewy on the inside and slightly crisp around the edges. The have a beautiful swirling red-and-white finish, thanks to the peppermint, and you can taste the vanilla, the mint and the cinnamon in each bite. I thought that the mint flavor was a bit too aggressive when I added peppermint extract into the cookie dough, but if you’re a real mint fan, feel free to try it out. These make great ice cream sandwiches with vanilla or chocolate ice cream if you want to dress them up, or simply serve them alongside some of that peppermint hot chocolate.
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Snickerdoodles are a classic American cookie, a bake-sale staple. They’re essentially sugar cookies that have been rolled in cinnamon sugar before baking, which gives them a crisp and flavorful crust to contrast a moist, sweet interior. This recipe gives that classic a little twist by turning the cookies into a batch of blondies.
What makes these blondies as opposed to just cookies in bar form is the texture. Usually, snickerdoodles have cream of tartar and baking soda in them. There is no leavening in this recipe so, like brownies, the blondies have a slightly dense and chewy center to them. This makes them satisfyingly brownie-like in spite of their sugar cookie flavor. It also makes them very addictive because the contrast between the crisp crust and chewy center is very hard to pass up.
This recipe doesn’t make a big batch, and it is pretty easy to much your way through a pan full if you if you have a crowd of friends (or kids) over to help eat. Fortunately, the recipe doubles easily. That said, I still like it best when baked in a square pan because you end up with just the right amount of crispy edge and chewy center. The vanilla flavor also comes through in the finished cookie and stands up nicely against the cinnamon-heavy topping. Definitely a keeper, and as much as I like classic snickerdoodles, I think I just might go for a batch of these over the more traditional cookies next time!
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I am a big fan of snickerdoodles, the classic American sugar cookies rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture. Not only to I like the original cookies, but I’ve used the idea to make a few spinoffs, including Snickerdoodle French Toast and Snickerdoodle Scones. So, when I was flipping through my files of recipes clipped from magazines and newspapers and noticed that I had saved one for Snickerdoodle Pie from an old issue of Better Homes & Gardens (not sure what issue, possibly in 2008), I immediately put it on the “must-try” list.
The pie is one that should have a very wide appeal, with the look and flavor of a snickerdoodle in pie form. I think it’s actually better than the cookies themselves, although one could argue that it’s not quite as easy to munch on as a cookie would be. It consists of a vanilla-flavored top layer that is a cross between a cookie and a cake. This layer has a cinnamon overlay that gives the pie the look of an actual snickerdoodle cookie. Underneath the cookie layer, there is a thin caramel layer that adds a lot of moisture and flavor to the cake, with notes of both caramel, cinnamon and browned butter. It really takes the pie from good to great. Of course, there is also a crisp pie crust at the bottom holding the whole thing together.
The pie is easy to make, with a method that is similar to that of a pudding cake. First, the cookie layer is poured into an unbaked pie crust. Then, the pie is topped with a sweet, syrup mixture. It is put into the oven and the layers meld together, then separate into caramel and cookie as the pie bakes. You can use a homemade pie crust for this recipe or a storebought one for this pie.
Serve the pie warm – either warm from the oven or reheated in the microwave – so that the caramel layer is oozing and juicy. The pie is great on its own and also goes well with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
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Snickerdoodles are incredibly satisfying cookies, considering how simple they are. They’re simple sugar cookies that are rolled in a cinnamon-heavy cinnamon sugar mixture before baking. This results in a soft and chewy texture for the vanilla cookie and a crisp, somewhat spicy exterior. I’ve played with the idea before and loved the way that it translated into a french toast recipe. This time, I wanted to translate the snickerdoodle idea onto a scone. A scone is much closer to a cookie than a piece of custardy french toast, after all!
The scone is a fairly basic vanilla scone, dropped in slightly flatten balls on the baking sheet to look more like cookies than scones that were rolled out and cut. I leavened the dough with baking soda and cream of tartar in place of baking powder (although cream of tartar is often the main component in baking powder) because that is the traditional leavening combination for snickerdoodles. The mix produced a really nice rise on the scones, puffing them up enough to produce a “crackly” look in the cinnamon crust.
The finished scones looked like giant snickerdoodles. They were tender and slightly crumbly on the inside, with a crunchy cinnamon sugar crust outside. Despite the sugar coating, these really aren’t too sweet, as there isn’t much sugar in the scone dough. This makes them seem very light and it’s easy to eat a whole scone without even noticing. In other words, they’re very tasty. I like them plain, and just like the cookies, I like to serve them with a big glass of milk
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