This is the type of cookie that you can eat all year round. Snickerdoodles are actually known as the poor man’s cookie, as there are minimal ingredients and you don’t have to have any form of chips to add. Usually that is the most expensive part of the cookie, the chip; as they are somewhere close to $3.50+ for the name brand and a little under $3.00 for the generic brand.
Every household (at least where I’m from) has their own version of the Snickerdoodle. This is the version my parents would make all the time because it is that good of a cookie. It’s light, fluffy, and puffy. One of the tricks to making the cookie so puffy is to chill the dough when your oven is preheating before baking.
Michigan Ingredients: Big Chief Sugar, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg.
For some reason, whenever I buy sugar, I am always looking to see if it is sugar from Michigan. Big Chief and Pioneer are typically my go to brands when it comes to sugar since they are Michigan based. The Cinnamon and Nutmeg were an added bonus (because when I gathered my ingredients, I noticed that this company is a Michigan company :). Not only do I love buying my spices in “bulk;” I will now be trying to use this brand more often).
First things first, grab your softened butter (which, if you are like me and not think ahead to soften your butter, please feel free to use the microwave… BUUUUUTTTTT…. don’t over do it because you do not want to have melted butter and the cookie to fail. Use 10 second bursts) and cream the butter with either your stand-up mixer or hand mixer. Creaming the butter ahead of time helps aid in the fluffiness of the cookie.
Add your sugar and cream together until there is no graininess. I know it might be hard to wait that long; but trust me, it is worth it.
Once your creamed mixture looks like the photo above, add your flour, baking powder, and nutmeg to the mixture. Beat until the cookie dough is fluffy and place the dough in the fridge to chill out while your oven preheats.
Now one would note that this recipe creates a dozen cookies. Trust me that this is a minimum amount as you can make your cookies however small or somewhat large you want. One thing that gets on my nerves is when you are making cookies and the recipes advises that you should “drop by tablespoonfuls.” Seriously? Adults will have self esteem issues as they will have to eat 3-4 cookie to satisfy that sweet tooth that encouraged them to even make the cookies to begin with. Keep in mind for future reference, that this site will make medium to large cookies so that one does not feel as guilty eating cookies. Now by all means, if you are dieting or making cookies for a crowd/your child’s class, then abide by the “tablespoonfuls” guideline to make your cookie dough stretch. OTHERWISE, realize that you are making an indulgent treat, and make it worth while (lol).
ANYWHO….While you are waiting for the oven to preheat, create your cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar mixture. This is where you can make the cookies taste more unique to your family’s taste by playing with the ratios. Some people like a balance, some like it to have a more cinnamon-y or nutmeg-y taste. Experiment!
Once the oven is preheated, grab your chilled cookie dough and drop the cookie dough onto a baking sheet by whatever sized cookies you are going to make (please see rant above) and then sprinkle the cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar mixture over your cookies and bake for 8-10 minutes until the tops are golden.
- 6 tablespoons of butter
- 1 cup of Michigan sugar (white)
- 1 Egg
- ½ cup of Milk
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- additional sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon for sprinkling
- Cream the butter until fluffy; gradually beat in the sugar. Beat in the egg and stir in the milk.
- Add your flour, baking powder, and nutmeg to the creamed butter mixture and beat until fluffy.
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and place your cookie dough in the fridge to chill. This will help create a fluffy/pillowy cookie.
- Meanwhile, create a cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg mixture for sprinkling. This is where you can experiment with family taste. I usually do ½ cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and ½ teaspoon of nutmeg.
- Drop cookie dough onto a pan and sprinkle the cookies with the cinnamon/sugar/nutmeg mixture.
- Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until cookies are slightly browned on top.
Kelley
Snickerdoodles were my mom’s go to Christmas cookie. We had friends that “required” her to make them every year. I never knew the chilling trick for making them airry and puffy though. Thanks for posting it!
Dianne Szymanski
These were also Grandpa’s favorite…he loved sugar cookies and cinnamon…so these were perfect. So happy you make them…Grandpa would be proud!!
Dianne Szymanski
5 stars