"snickerdoodles" news and stories

It's true that we're on a cookie jag; we can't help it. We love to bake them, eat them, and give them away in pretty boxes all tied up in bows. Well, ok, we try; no one will ever confuse us with Martha Stewart. December is the month to lay in the flour, sugar, and butter because we've got a lot of recipes for you to try, beginning with yesterday's Stained-Glass Sugar Cookie and today's Snickerdoodle.

Frankly, we just like saying "Snickerdoodle." But this buttery sugar cookie with the trademark cracked surface is more than just a nonsense name. It's fragrant with cinnamon. When you bake a batch of Snickerdoodles, your house becomes a comfort zone.

These cookies come to us from Erin Cooks. She pulled the recipe for Chocolate Chip Amish Puff Cookies from the newly published Field Guide to Cookies (which you'll see featured here on Slashfood shortly) and says that they are similar to a traditional snickerdoodle in taste and texture.

Erin is actually giving away a copy of the Field Guide to Cookies on her site and you have until 12 noon today to leave a comment to win. Why not head on over and try your luck!

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Snickerdoodles are supposed to be one of the great standards of American cookies, although they look relatively nondescript when compared to an ultra-rich chocolate chip cookie loaded with bittersweet chocolate and nuts. Once you get past their plain appearance, you'll discover that the chewy vanilla cookie with the crunchy cinnamon sugar coating is indeed one of the cookie greats. But bringing up the comparison with the very varied chocolate chip cookies introduces the one drawback of the snickerdoodle: it almost never undergoes any variations because everyone likes the original so much. Karen at FamilyStyle made up a batch of Chocolate Chai Snickerdoodles that bucks this trend, though. These cookies have the classic texture that we know and love from the original cookies, but with lot of added spices and a base cookie that has a healthy amount of cocoa added for chocolate flavor. The recipe is after the jump:

Cream of tartar is potassium hydrogen tartrate, which is an acidic salt. Grapes are the most common natural source of tartaric acid. During the wine production process, a sediment forms as a result of combining potassium hydroxide with the tartaric acid, leaving a white sediment: cream of tartar.

A combination of cream of tartar and baking soda was the original baking powder. Baking soda reacts almost instantly when exposed to wet/acidic ingredients, but the addition of cream of tartar tempers the effect of the baking soda and delays the rising reaction – which will produce a higher rise in the oven. Unlike baking powder, however, cream of tartar will not lose it potency over time, so you can buy a jar and keep it in your kitchen cupboard forever.