American Cookie #5 {1891 Snickerdoodles}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the fifth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing one of America's most cherised cookies, the Snickerdoodle.

 

The History of Snickerdoodles: Cornelia Campbell Bedford was a New York City cooking teacher and newspaper columnist, better known as "Nellie." Nellie was developing recipes for the Cleveland Baking Powder company when her recipe for snickerdoodles, which was essentially sugar cookie dough spread into a pan and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and sugar, went viral. At the end of the 19th century, going viral meant that Nellie's bar cookie was discussed in newspaper columns daily for the next year! Good job, Nellie! 

Earlier Snickerdoodle recipes called for butter, but in 1923 Crisco marketed Mrs. T's Snicker Doodles: the favorite recipes of an English-woman in their advertising and sometime after that there was a shift from using butter in the recipe to using vegetable shortening. Somewhere around the 1930s, the Snicker Doodle was changed from a bar cookie to a cookie. 

The quirky name, "Snickerdoodle," has always been part of the appeal. John Mariana says in The Dictionary of American Food and Drink, that this nonsense word "Snickerdoodle" implied the cookie was quick to make. Others think Snickerdoodle sounds like Yankee Doodle and also characters out of Raggedy Ann, like Snickersnapper, Snitznoodle, and Snarlydoodle. It just makes us smile!

My Results: I don't think I've made a Snickerdoodle before, but I was excited to give it a try! The cookie dough was in fact easy to come together and didn't require any chilling prior to baking. The dough calls for both butter and vegetable shortening and the baking notes in the book said that baking with butter and vegetable shortening is the best of both worlds because butter adds flavor and shortening helps the cookies keep a rounded shape while baking. The cookie dough has to be spread about 2" apart on the cookie sheet because they do tend to spread out quite a bit, but they did bake up flavorful and round with just the perfect hint of cinnamon and sugar. Everything about the recipe was perfect and we really loved them!

My Rating: I would give this recipe a 4 out of 5! The recipe itself is a perfect recipe and turns out perfectly (deserving a 5 star rating), but I am rating them based on my taste preferences and while I loved these, I do tend to prefer a thicker, chewier cookie. 

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one star being the lowest rating and five-star being the highest.

Notes on the recipes in American Cookie: After making my fifth cookie recipe from American Cookie, one thing I can say is that this cookbook produces some of the most perfect cookies I've ever made (and I've made a lot of cookies)! I highly recommend this cookbook!

 

Snickerdoodles

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes about 4 dozen

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

topping: 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375F.

For dough, place the sugar, soft butter, and shortening in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl once with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.

Place the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda in a medium size bowl and stir with a fork to combine. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, and beat on low speed until incorporated, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.

For the topping, stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

Using a teaspoon, of cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough into balls about 1-1/4" in diameter. The dough will be soft but manageable. Sprinkle the balls with the cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated (or roll the balls in the mixture). Drop them about 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake the cookies until the edges are lightly golden but the centers are still a little soft to the touch, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies rest on the pan 1 minute. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Scrape the baking sheet, then repeat the process with the remaining cookie dough, letting the baking sheet cool first so the dough does not spread too much. Store the cookies in an airtight container.