Snickerdoodles! Our First Guest Post

Today one of my best friends in the whole wide world is going to share her thoughts on baking and most importantly give us a snickerdoodle recipe! I will be bringing these to Dan after a long hard week (yea, right!) of culinary classes. I have known Heather since college where she inspired me with her already refined cooking skills, 7-layer dip perfections and weird healthy alternates like turkey burgers and tofu.

Thanks, Heather! These look delish...

"Like Chloe and Dan, I’ve had a love for food since before I can remember. I started receiving kitchen appliances in elementary school and attended Pampered Chef parties with my mom when other kids were playing dolls and riding their bikes. For the final assignment in my 7th grade home economics class (side note – do schools still do that? Am I dating myself?!) I made a pot roast while the other students made chocolate chip cookies. I also spent many summer days at my aunt’s bakery – frosting cookies, mixing icing, watching her do wonders with sugar, flour and butter. As you can tell, I love food and all things about it.

For the beginner chef, there’s a major difference between cooking and baking. Ever watched Top Chef? Choose dessert, and you’re going home. Cooking allows for creativity – view the recipe and then start your journey ad-libbing. Like something spicy? Use siracha instead of cayenne pepper sauce. Accidently add too much salt? Add a chunk of potato to draw the salt away. Baking, on the other hand, is an actual science. The measurements and ingredients are necessary for your cookies to look (and taste) like cookies. Sure, once you get the general idea of baking and the fundamentals that baking soda is not the same as baking powder, you can add your own special touch. But if it’s your first time making cookies not from slice and bake, do yourself a favor and follow the recipe.

In preparation of seeing my brother for the first time in eight months (and his wife and meeting my baby nephew for the first time!), I decided to make his favorite childhood cookie – Snickerdoodles! Recipe is my (other) favorite food blog: Annie’s Eats.

Snickerdoodles (Yields: about 30 cookies)

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 oz.) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened but still cool
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 oz.) granulated sugar, plus 3 tbsp. for rolling dough
2 large eggs
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon, for rolling dough

To create:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine the first four dry ingredients in a small bowl. In a separate large bowl, add the butter, shortening and sugar and blend well.

Of all of the kitchen appliances I have, I’m still sans a Kitchen Aid (although on my registry…!) Annie recommends using your Kitchen Aid or another electric mixer, but there’s something powerful about creaming butter and sugar. To me, I’m enthralled watching two ingredients, one a fine grain and one a soft and sticky solid come together. Nothing you can’t do without a little elbow grease! It is important to make sure the butter is soft but cool as the recipe calls for. When working with butter and baking, if the butter is too warm or melted (watch out if you decide to nuke it in the microwave!), you run the risk of your cookies spreading too much and being flat and crisp instead of soft and chewy.

Anyways….once you creamed the butter, shortening and sugar, add your two eggs and mix together until well combined. Add the flour mixture in two batches and mix until you have dough consistency. If your dough looks sticky, put the dough in the fridge to let the butter set before making the cookies. This will help them stay soft.

Combine the sugar and cinnamon in small bowl. Using a spoon or your hands, grab some dough and roll it into a ball about 1 in to 1 ½ inches wide. Roll the dough ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat until your tray is full. Take a flat-bottom cup (or use the palm of your hand) and lightly press down on the cookies until they’re about 1 ½ inches wide. Do not over flatten as the cookies will spread during baking. Repeat until finished.
Bake the cookies on the middle rack for 9-11 minutes. If you’re doing more than one tray at once, make sure to rotate the trays to ensure even baking.

Properly cool the cookies on a cooling rack and enjoy! :)