Just when you thought it was safe, here I am with another Snickerdoodle recipe. Well, they're sorta-kinda Snickerdoodles. For one thing, I am still out of cream of tartar because, much to my dismay, Lee doesn't seem to carry it in his spice section at the market. Oh pain. Oh agony. I'm told one can substitute either vinegar or lemon juice for cream of tartar but I'm not convinced the results are the same. Close, but no banana. (I don't have any cigars, either.) That would probably be okay if you weren't as bull-headed as I am. See, as far as I'm concerned, if it doesn't have cream of tartar, it isn't a Snickerdoodle. It's just a sugar cookie. A very good sugar cookie, to be sure, but only a pretender.The other thing about this particular recipe is that the cookies don't crackle on top. I don't know why that is. Instead of crackling, they just crumpled. Maybe they're really polite cookies so instead of snickering, they decided to chuckle. So I'm calling them Chuckledoodles, okay?
Crackled or crumpled, they still came out doggoned good. Tender crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Which is the way they're supposed to be. That's another of my bull-headed Snickerdoodle roolz -- we're not having us any of those cakey-type cookies here, thank you very much.
I got this recipe from the Taste of Home web site, which is a really good place to go for all kinds of nummy stuff. The reason I tried it was because it was very close to my regular Snickerdoodle recipe but doesn't make as many cookies. I just wasn't in the mood to bake a whole kajillion of the little guys. I ended up with 43 cookies. Well, to be more precise, it was 42 regular-sized cookies and 1 little bitty guy. And this am the way it goes:
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Cream together the butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla, beat well. Add flour, soda and cream of tartar, beat well. Dough should be soft but just firm enough, if you handle it lightly, to roll teaspoon-sized blobs into something like walnut-sized balls. Roll the balls in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon (I like to add about half as much cardamom as cinnamon) and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees fairyheight for 10 to 12 minutes.
Okay -- I should stress you want to test a few cookies in your oven. In my oven, 8 minutes is just right. Anything past that and the cookies would be too hard. Don't like hard cookies. Tender crunchy, that's the goal. Also, if I'd had a fresh supply of cream of tartar, I'd have put a full teaspoon in. Absolutely. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.
I should point out there is no vanilla in my regular "go to" Snickerdoodle recipe -- and I don't miss it when I do the cookies that way. But it's nice in this recipe. The presence or absence of vanilla in this venue does not fall under the scope of my bull-headed roolz.
But I'm still calling these Chuckledoodles.
Okay -- I should stress you want to test a few cookies in your oven. In my oven, 8 minutes is just right. Anything past that and the cookies would be too hard. Don't like hard cookies. Tender crunchy, that's the goal. Also, if I'd had a fresh supply of cream of tartar, I'd have put a full teaspoon in. Absolutely. Your mileage, as they say, may vary.
I should point out there is no vanilla in my regular "go to" Snickerdoodle recipe -- and I don't miss it when I do the cookies that way. But it's nice in this recipe. The presence or absence of vanilla in this venue does not fall under the scope of my bull-headed roolz.
But I'm still calling these Chuckledoodles.
