BA’s Best: Snickerdoodles
If cinnamon toast were a cookie, it would be this one. Crunchy edged, crispy bottomed, and buttery centred, these cookies deliver a smack of cinnamon and vanilla-scented sugar that, like actual cinnamon toast, makes it impossible to draw the line at only one helping. Also like cinnamon toast, these are best eaten at midnight surrounded by a scattering of crumbs and a displeased partner sitting beside you asking if you could maybe not fill the bed with food crumbs yet again because those sheets were just washed.
Unlike cinnamon toast, these cookies take a wee bit longer to cobble together and require just the tiniest amount of forethought. I should also mention that the mixing times listed in this recipe are not guidelines – they are hard and fast rules. These cookies have a relatively short ingredient list for a baked good and because of this, it is imperative that you not rush through making the cookie dough. The simplicity of snickerdoodles hinges on a well-aerated, fluffy dough; otherwise you may as well just make sugar cookies and be a general disappointment to everyone who was banking on eating cookies that anyone actually likes. So don’t be a hero and race through the recipe, shaving off minutes here and there. If your arm doesn’t ache after beating in the eggs, you’re doing it wrong. Or you’re fit, in which case ~good for you~.
BA’s Best: Snickerdoodles
Taken directly from BA’s Best arsenal, with the most minor of tweaks here and there
Makes about 2 ½ dozen cookies
Ingredients:
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
¾ tsp kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
½ cup light brown sugar (packed)
1 ½ cups white sugar, divided into increments of 1 cup and ½ cup
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 tbsp cinnamon
Directions:
Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter, light brown sugar, and 1 cup white sugar together using an electric mixer set on medium speed. Beat for 1 minute then stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Scrape in the seeds from the vanilla beans and set the pod aside for later use. Add the eggs and keep beating until the mixture turns pale yellow and falls from the beaters in a smooth ribbon. This means beating in the eggs for at least 3 FULL minutes. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Let the dough sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. This hydrates the flour and makes the dough easier to work with.
While the dough is resting, pour the remaining ½ cup white sugar into a small bowl. Rub the leftover vanilla pod into the sugar, extracting as many residual seeds as possible. Measure out 2 tbsp of the vanilla sugar into a small bowl and place the rest in an airtight jar (vanilla sugar can be used in place of regular sugar in pretty much any recipe). Combine the cinnamon with the 2 tbsp vanilla sugar.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Measure out heaping tablespoonfuls of dough and roll each spoonful into a small ball. Dredge the dough balls in the cinnamon-sugar until coated all over. Transfer the cookies to a large, lined baking sheet and space them 3 inches apart from one another. These cookies spread like crazy so you will definitely want to closely observe the spacing rule. Bake the cookies in the centre of the oven for 9-10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet from front to back halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and finish cooling. Serve with a generous pour of milk…or bourbon.
