Snickerdoodles: The Day Before Payday Cookie

It's almost like when ABC News came to the house we were just tempting fate with our budget.

Reporter: Would you say your financial situation is better since you're renting?

Me: Of course! Ha ha ha!

......two weeks later......

God: How about now?

Ho Ho! It's not that bad and we'll make it work, the nice thing is we have a lot of flexibility with our financial landscape, plus all the late night fretting I do, so everything will be fine.

Our cash flow however has run into some snags in the last month. Mainly related to lawsuits against douchey ex-landlords who have illegally held our security deposit and those types of things. That keeps coming up doesn't it? I should just grow up already.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa.

So at the end of the pay period we're sort of very careful with our money and this is my (typically) long-winded way of telling you how I decided to make Snickerdoodles today since my house has been cleared of everything except a variety of condiments, 3 eggs, some questionable hummus, and a lot of things you can mix with alcohol to make cocktails. It's what's for dinner!

I decided to try a recipe I saw at Tastespotting. Tastespotting has become my new hobby as I'm eating a really unsatisfying meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwich, or worse, a spoonful of peanut butter. I browse and think, "Gee, I wish I was putting that in my mouth."

You can find the recipe for snickerdoodles here.

Here's why I make snickerdoodles after growing up without ever even knowing something called a snickerdoodle existed. You can make them with 7 ingredients we almost always have in our house. The only cookie more reliably made from our kitchen would be one composed of ketchup, barbeque sauce and Rose's lime juice.

Let me know if you have one!

Just look at these ingredients so simple! Make sure you use your labelmaker on your pantry items or you're likely to add your blow to your snickerdoodles and that will not have the results you want most likely. Though I don't know what kind of baking you like to do.

(PS: the recipe calls for Coarse Salt so I used the coarse salt we have, but probably should have used the coarse kosher salt....the kids and Logan seem to enjoy the sweet/salty thing though so who knows.)

You're supposed to sift your flour, baking powder and salt together but it's against the rules of living in a house with 6 cabinets to own a sifter* so I just whisk the crap out of it and hope for the best.

(*Check your local ordinances)

Here's the softened butter, here's a great tip at Simply Recipes for softening butter if you forget to pull it out of the fridge.

Cream them together!

I am not a very good food blogger because here you won't see where I added the eggs, one at a time mixing in between. Then the flour mixture, slowly. Just imagine it. It's amazing, right? Wow.

Take the sugar and the cinnamon and put them in a bowl.

Mix them up and you have cinnamon sugar. My mother used to let us eat toast with butter and cinnamon sugar on top. I can't believe none of us were diagnosed with ADD after that sugar rush in the morning. Then again, back then people drank while pregnant so maybe it all evened out.

Take a spoon full of the dough, you should get this scoop if you like even sized cookies and do not live in a house with six kitchen cabinets. I like evenly sized cookies so the process of scooping out the dough is sort of painful for me and my tendency toward things being neat and tidy.

Shape your (hopefully even sized) lump of dough into a ball, and roll them around in your cinnamon sugar mixture.

Check it out!...here it is all covered up and looking like a doughnut hole!

Set them out on your cookie sheet. Maybe in a more even manner than I did here. Remember what I said above about not having ADD and liking things neat and tidy? Never mind.

Here they are out of the oven, a little flatter than I would like, but still reasonably soft and gooey.

On payday maybe I'll make something more extravagent, like Neiman Marcus cookies.

Did They Eat It?

Duh.

Comments

[Manic Mommy]

Yeah, I don't have that many ingredients in my house. I could maybe make play-doh; that's about it. The cookies look good though!

[MelissaS]

Oil, flour, salt and cream of tartar for playdough.

Omit Oil and cream of tartar, add sugar and baking powder (pantry stable!) and eggs and butter (butter can be stored in the freezer!)

[Lisa]

My recipe from the Betty Crocker Cooky Book (from 1963) calls for cream of tartar, and believe me, it makes all the difference! Here are the ingredients:
1 C butter (doesn't specify salted or un-)
1 1/2 C sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 C flour (measure by dipping OR sifting - BONUS!)
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt (I don't think they knew from "coarse salt" in 1963)
2 Tbsp sugar (for rolling the cookies in)
2 tsp cinnamon (for rolling the cookies in)
The process is the same. If you have the stuff, I highly encourage you to try this version. A friend's mom made this recipe so much that she wrote the recipe right on the inside of her cupboard door. I thought that was cool

[Toni]

OMG Neiman Marcus cookies are a gift from the gods, but I love the sinckerdoodle as well. I love your food blogging as it allows me to use my imagination, and what fancy food blog can say that? :)

[Swankette]

According to Martha Stewart whisking is as good as sifting, so you're fine. Personally, I use a wire mesh colander for both my whisking and draining needs.

[amy]

OK, you officially rule as Person I Would Like to Become.

[Elizabeth]

"My mother used to let us eat toast with butter and cinnamon sugar on top. I can't believe none of us were diagnosed with ADD after that sugar rush in the morning. Then again, back then people drank while pregnant so maybe it all evened out."

umm my husband gives my kids this for breakfast at least one morning a week... Damn I knew I should have just drank those Margs while I was pregnant. Does it help that he tries to get them to eat at least two banana slices with it?

[Cass]

Oh man, snickerdoodles have been one of my favs since I was a little girl. As someone mentioned upthread the Betty Crocker cookbook from way back has the best receipe out there.

Now try eating just a few, won't happen.

[Sara]

This is why I love your blog. You make even a mundane activity like making cookies funny!

But I have to admit that I make my kids cinnamon toast all the time. With extra butter. It's a great after school snack and if I use homemade bread, it involves all natural ingredients. Not that I always make it with homemade bread... But sometimes I do ;-).

My oldest loves snickerdoodles, though I don't make them often enough. My recipe is from Cooks Illustrated and is like Lisa's in that the key ingredient is cream of tartar. Gives them a tangy taste.

It is supposed to rain here today - maybe this is what I'll be doing this afternoon...

[Jen]

Cinnamon toast is just cereal with all the sugar visible. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[Emily]

I really recommend the Neiman Marcus cookies. They're the favorite cookie recipe in my house right now. I make them in a 9x9 pan as bar cookies because I'm too lazy to scoop them into cookies.

[Casey]

Neiman Marcus cookie recipe rocks. Also, forget the espresso powder (who can find it?) and go with straight-up instant coffee. Personally, I use Trader Joe's because it packs a lot of flavor. Put it in with the wet ingredients (eggs, etc) and it will dissolve into the batter.

Ditto the calls for cream of tartar. At least it's easier to find than espresso powder.

[Jennifer]

I love snickerdoodles but I have cinnamon hating kids. Darn those kids! So I never make them, lest I eat the whole batch myself!

[Michelle]

Snickerdoodles? My favorite!! And not just because I have such happy memories of my mom letting me roll the dough balls and coat them in cinnamon at such an early age.

[McCashew]

Great tip on the butter softening... my stand by butter softener is my husband. Two minutes between his hotter than hades hands and presto.

[Elizabeth]

I agree.
Cream of tartar is key!

[amy]

Yeah, we call cinnamon and sugar toast "Daddy's Special Toast". I think he's trying to buy their love. And succeeding.

[Erin]

That scooper is over-rated. Mine has broken on several occasions when used in combination with cookie dough. Now I just go for the plain tablespoon. Snickerdoodles look yummy. Maybe I'll make some!

[Lizzie]

Hey thanks for linking to my blog! Glad the recipe yielded such great results for you; it's really the easiest recipe, no? Thank god for martha stewart ;)

[bridget]

melissa,

you crack me up.

thanks!
bridget
staynathome@hotmail.com

[Deb]

I just made snickerdoodles for my dad's 78th birthday - his request. I agree with previous comments; it's the cream of tartar that *makes* these cookies! You must use your last dollar to buy some!!!

[Suebob]

Aw, my sis used to love snickerdoodles. They are quite yum.

That La Baleine salt is really good. If you taste it next to Morton's, you will wonder why people ever use the stuff in the blue box.

[Maureen]

I'm making these tomorrow because it means I won't have to make a trip to the market and my kids will love me:)
Thanks for reminding me about these yummy treats.

[A]

I have never had a snickerdoodle. I feel empty inside....

[Mary]

Try using a melon baller to make the cookies evenly sized. (I know, if you don't have room for a sifter, you probably don't have room for a melon baller.) Hey, I have SEVEN cabinets!

[kirida]

My favorite cookie from childhood is the snickerdoodle. Now I want to make a couple of dozen and direct them to my mouth.

[Jessica]

Well, this is the easiest cookie EVER...

It's called the 3-in-1 which is NOT dirty even though my husband swears it is.

1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg

Mix together, drop on a cookie sheet in small balls (ha!), do the little criss-crossy thing with the fork and bake at 350 for 12 minutes or so.

DONE.

[sumo]

I pink-puffy-heart Love with a capital L snickerdoodles, but I have to tell you those are just cinnamon sugar cookies if they don't have cream of tartar. Not that I wouldn't still devour them like Cookie Monster. COOKIES!!