Old-Fashioned Snickerdoodles

Snickerdoodles are just good, honest cookies. They’re not too sweet, with a crunchy exterior and a light, fluffy interior that just melts in your mouth. And they’re made with simple ingredients and a relatively easy method.

I’ve been making this recipe since my mid-teens, which is (ahem) quite a long time. In doing a little research for this post I was simply shocked at the differences this recipe has to others out there on the Interwebs. Who knew there were so many different ideas on what a snickerdoodle is?

However, I’ve got to believe that this version is more authentic to the ‘original’ snickerdoodle recipe. I’m not certain how it came to our family; it could have been my grandmother’s or even great-grandmother’s recipe. Or even before that.

Snickerdoodle Fun Facts

The origins of this simple cookie with the funny name aren’t clear. Some sources claim it came from Germany. Others say it originated in New England or the Amish and Mennonite communities.

The main clue that this is a really old recipe for snickerdoodles is the leavening method. Before baking powder was widely available (around 1860), bakers sometimes used the combination of baking soda and cream of tartar to leaven quick breads, cookies and the like.

If you’re not familiar with it, cream of tartar is actually a byproduct of winemaking. It’s acidic, and when combined with the alkaline baking soda, provides a chemical reaction that leads to bubbles of carbon dioxide that lighten and raise the cookies. (Cream of tartar has numerous other household uses, too, that I’ve yet to investigate.)

How to Make Snickerdoodles

Like their simple nature, snickerdoodles aren’t very fussy to make. You just cream the softened butter with the sugar, then add the eggs and beat until well combined. In a separate bowl, stir together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Add the dry mixture a little at a time into the batter until fully incorporated.

To form the cookies, I find it easiest to grab a fat handful of the cookie dough and form it into a rope or snake. Then I pinch off enough dough to make a ball the size of a small walnut (about 1-inch diameter). I’ll form all the dough balls needed to fill a cookie sheet, and then start rolling them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and positioning them on the baking pan. (This way I don’t wind up with the cinnamon mixture where I don’t want it to be.)

Note that you don’t smash the cookie dough balls down – as they bake, they’ll kind of “melt” like little cinnamon-covered snowmen. This creates the classic crackled top of a snickerdoodle.

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