Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles. I must confess the first time I came cross this recipe in Nigella Lawson's book, How to be a Domestic Goddess, I thought it had something to do with Snickers, the chocolate bar. So I had to bake them! After gathering all my ingredients together and not seeing a single Snickers Bar, I thought, "well... best make them now" - and I did and I've been making them for over 6 years now. I think the best way to describe these is a spicy cookie. Spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg that is, and not what we English call the biscuit with chocolate chips and chunks, but what Americans call cookies. Our simple, humble biscuit. I remember when I was doing my A-levels and I was a member of the Christian Society in my 6th form school. It was lent and most of the members had given up chocolate and it was my turn to bring in the baked goods. I knew these would be the perfect goodie: sweet, light and moreish. Sure to cut through their chocolate cravings. Of course word got out about my biscuits and I ended up baking them for my English class as well! Moral of the story: cinnamon and nutmeg taste great in a little rounded biscuit. Oh, and Snickerdoodles do not contain Snickers!

The first thing to do was to place into a bowl plain flour, freshly grated nutmeg, baking powder and salt. These together formed the dry ingredients. This was quickly mixed together and placed to the side while I got on with the dough.

In my stand-alone mixer I put butter, which I had left out for about an hour, and 100g of caster sugar, then creamed them until they were light and pale. The reason I only leave the butter out for a short amount of time is because I don't want it too soft. When it's too soft, the mixture is harder to handle and shape into balls. Also, when baked, they kind of melt into flat discs. So you want the butter firm, not rock hard, but soft enough to cut into in order to give a crumbly crumb once you bite into the Snickerdoodle.

When that was creamed, I whisked in my vanilla extract and an egg. Then with the mixer on low, I shoveled the dry ingredients in through the funnel until the mixture clumped together to make a dough. It is a bit like when you're making cookies; you want a thick and crumbly mixture that's also sticky. This makes it all easier to handle. Make sure to scrape the bowl down with a spatula to pick up on any knobs of butter that are stuck on the bottom and mix them in properly. 

With that done, it was time to make the cinnamon sugar. This was just a case of putting on a plate a tablespoon of ground cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of  caster sugar and blending them together.

A cook's best tools are clean hands. Using the tips of my fingers, I pinched my Snickerdoodle dough between them...

... and using the palms of my hands, I rolled this pinched amount into a ball...

... and dropped it into the cinnamon sugar. 

Rolled it around in the cinnamon sugar like a kid in a sandbox...

... and placed the ball onto a lined baking tray. I did this 36 more times until I had trays of doodles going up and down.

In they went into an oven of 180 degrees for 15 minutes where the cinnamon was left to work it's magic both visually and in smell. When ready, the Snickerdoodles were darker in colour and splitting slightly on the top. Such a beautiful smell will be wafting around in your kitchen. I must say, you gotta eat them warm and when you do, you won't be able to just have one (unless you lock the others away). Maybe you ought to double the recipe because they'll be gone before you can even say Snickerdoodle!

Makes around 35

- Pre-heat oven to 180 

Ingredients:

• 250g Plain Flour 
• 1/2tsp Ground Nutmeg 
• 3/4tsp Baking Powder 
• 1/2tsp Salt 
• 100g Caster Sugar 
• 1 Large Egg 
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract 

Cinnamon Sugar:

• 1tbsp Ground Cinnamon 
• 2tbsp Caster Sugar