Day 339–Cinnamon and Snickerdoodles

3 of our Snickerdoodles arranged in the shape of a Mickey Mouse head!

Did you know that cinnamon is a super food? Not only does cinnamon help decrease cholesterol levels, it also helps your body regulate its insulin production, which is weird since it pairs so well with sugar 🙂 We eat cinnamon on toast, over oatmeal, in curry sauce and on baked fruit. We are also in the throes of the holiday baking season, and even though cookies are not health food, we eat cinnamon on cookies. Here is my thinking:

If you’re going to eat a cookie, eat a homemade cookie. And eat it with cinnamon.

One of my favorite cookies is the snickerdoodle. I had never even heard of snickerdoodles until I was living in Nashville and working right across from a bakery. Oh. My. I had always been a purist chocolate chip girl, but something about the combination of butter and cinnamon spoke to me. I think if Santa had a favorite cookie, this would be it. Enough spice to be interesting, but close enough to a sugar cookie to be comforting. I think the reindeer would like them, too.

So, in the midst of what is turning out to be a very busy holiday season, Ellie and I took some mother/daughter time to bake cookies, and we made sure to have some snickerdoodles. In true holiday spirit, we shared them with our neighbors and friends to spread the joy. And the cinnamon.

Snickerdoodles

• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 1/4 cup organic cane sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups unbleached organic flour
• 2 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tbsp. ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 c. sugar and the ground cinnamon. Set aside.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
4. Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs and vanilla and mix until combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix on low or stir to combine. Your dough will be a bit stiff.
7. Roll scoops of dough into balls the size of a walnut (I use a mini ice cream scoop for this–works great!).
8. Place each dough ball into the cinnamon sugar and roll around until coated. Place dough on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2″ apart.
9. Bake 8-10 minutes, just until lightly browned. Remove from the oven and let cool 2 minutes.
10. Using a spatula, remove cookies from cookie sheet to a cooling rack. Cool completely, if you can stand to leave them that long!

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Posted by Deanna on December 4, 2012

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