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Snickerdoodles

by Matt Kennard

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The standard recipe, made properly, with a gluten-free version that needs a rest and nothing else. Cream of tartar is what makes it a snickerdoodle; underbaking is what makes it chewy.

Serves
24
Total
40 min
Baked
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This is the standard recipe and I have no interest in improving it. Snickerdoodles are already right, and most attempts to make them more interesting produce a worse cookie.

Two things do the work. Cream of tartar, which is the acid that gives the cookie its tang and its crackled surface, and which is why a snickerdoodle is not just a cinnamon sugar cookie. And pulling them early, while the centers still look underdone, because they set on the sheet and a fully baked snickerdoodle is a crisp one.

Gluten-free

This is one of the easier cookies to make gluten-free, because there's no gluten structure to replace: it's a soft cookie that's meant to spread.

  • Use a 1-to-1 blend with xanthan gum already in it. Same weight, same cup measure.
  • Rest the dough 30 minutes before rolling. This is the one real change. Gluten-free flours hydrate slowly, and dough rolled straight away makes a gritty cookie that spreads too far. Thirty minutes fixes both.
  • The dough will feel softer and stickier than wheat dough. That's correct. Chill it 10 minutes if it's too soft to roll.
  • Bake 1 to 2 minutes longer, and still pull them looking underdone.
  • They set firmer as they cool than wheat ones do, so err even further toward early.

The result is closer to the wheat version than most gluten-free baking gets. If yours is gritty, the dough didn't rest.

If it's not right

  • Flat and thin: butter too warm, or the sheet was greased, or the dough was overmixed.
  • Crisp rather than chewy: baked too long. Take two minutes off.
  • No crackle on top: not enough cream of tartar, or the coating was thin.
  • Tough: overmixed after the flour went in.
  • Gritty, on the gluten-free version: the dough didn't rest, so the flour never hydrated.

Ingredients

24

Method

  1. Oven to 375°F.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and light, about 3 minutes. This is not a step to rush; it's where the texture comes from.

  3. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla.

  4. Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt together, then mix into the butter just until it comes together. Stop as soon as no flour is visible.

  5. Mix the coating sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

  6. Roll the dough into balls about 1½ inches, then roll each in the cinnamon sugar until fully coated.

  7. Two inches apart on an ungreased sheet.

  8. Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers still look soft and underdone.

  9. Two minutes on the sheet, then onto a rack.

From the journal

  • Make the dessert — We skip it because the meal already feels like enough work. It's the course people remember, and it's the easiest one to get right.

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