This has been a summer of very little cooking. Sure, I make dinner most nights but I've stuck to the easiest, most familiar recipes, in light of a houseful of men and their construction mess going on here.
For weeks the place was so torn up that I had little desire to do anything in the kitchen and, up until this weekend, we certainly weren't inviting people over in the midst of the constant mess. Since Monday was Labor Day and since the summer is rapidly coming to an end, we invited Mike and Jody and family to spend the day with us. Only we couldn't plan the day for Saturday or Monday, as we had workmen here both those days...so that left Sunday for family game night. Let's not imagine I went crazy in the kitchen as we wound up eating delivered pizza for our main course. I did, however, make a few desserts and a side salad. These snickerdoodles were one of the desserts because I've noticed the Yorba Linda Stoops like grazing type foods that can be picked up easily and eaten. Cookies have to be about the easiest form of getting something sweet and yummy into your tummy.
I've made plenty of snickerdoodles in my day but this time I decided to try the Smitten Kitchen version. Given that Deb's recipes often seem rather complicated, these went together easily. But, really, how can you make a simple cookie like the much loved snickerdoodle be too complex??? Even with the ease of the recipe, I did have one aggravating failure. Most of my cookie pans are in Parkville so I could only find one of the kind I love and always use. That one got used, along with another larger but somehow flimsier feeling sheet. The cookies from my favorite baking sheet turned out pretty close to perfection while the ones from the Brand X sheet were too dark on the bottom and not as pretty on top. So, let this be a lesson...the quality of the cookie sheets matters.
Snickerdoodles
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tarter
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
16 T (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar, divided, plus more if needed
2 T ground cinnamon, plus more if needed
2 large eggs
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 400, with one rack in the top third and one rack in the bottom third of the oven. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Set aside.
Sift together flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add eggs and beat to combine. Add dry ingredients and beat to combine. At this point, Deb chilled her dough for an hour and I chilled mine overnight, before scooping, as it makes it easier to form balls to roll in the cinnamon sugar. Other recipes I've used don't call for any chilling and that always worked, too, though it might have been a bit messier.
Once the dough has chilled, in a small bowl, combine the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and the ground cinnamon. Use a small ice-cream scoop to form balls of the dough and roll these in cinnamon sugar. (I didn't have a small scoop so just eye balled mine) Place the sugared up balls about two inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the cookies are set in the center and begin to crack, (they will not brown), about 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheets after 5 minutes.
Transfer the sheets to a wire rack to cool about five minutes before transferring the cookies to the rack. In theory, they can be stored in an airtight container up to one week.
