Buttery Snickerdoodles

Recipe by PJ Hamel
172 Reviews 4.5 out of 5 stars

Most Snickerdoodle recipes rely on vegetable shortening for their crisp/crunchy texture. For those of you who like to avoid shortening, we offer this butter-based Snickerdoodle — which can be either soft and chewy, or crunchy, depending on how long you bake it. Interestingly, they're made with either all-purpose flour or bread flour — tasty evidence that bread flour's not JUST for bread.

Prep
15 mins
Bake
8 to 10 mins
Total
23 mins
Yield
4 dozen 2" cookies
Buttery Snickerdoodles

Instructions

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  1. To make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 375°F. Lightly grease (or line with parchment) two baking sheets.

  2. Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth.

  3. Add the egg, beating until smooth.

  4. Beat in the vanilla, salt, and baking powder.

  5. Add the flour, mixing until totally incorporated.

  6. To make the coating: Shake together the sugar and cinnamon in a medium-sized zip-top plastic bag.

  7. Drop small (1"-diameter) balls of dough into the bag; a teaspoon cookie scoop works well here. Roll/toss the cookies in the cinnamon sugar until they're completely coated.

  8. Space the cookies at least 1 1/2" apart on the prepared baking sheets. Use a flat-bottom glass to flatten them to about 3/8" thick; they'll be about 1 1/2" in diameter.

  9. Bake the cookies for 8 minutes (for soft cookies) to 10 minutes (for crunchier cookies). Remove them from the oven, and cool them on the pan until they're firm enough to transfer to a rack to cool completely.

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