Review: Snickerdoodles!

[paulryb]

One of my favorite cookies; I was just wishing for a light recipe because the regular recipes for this cookie just have too much fat...usually shortening plus butter!

My boyfriend and I just made these!

They were good, but...cooking time was way off! We baked ours for 8 minutes and they could have used a minute or two more. We actually took them out at the 5 minute mark as the recipe says, let them cool on the pans for 2 minutes and placed them on cooling racks, but they were still raw on the inside! We put them back on the sheets and baked them longer.

42 cookies from this recipe?? Have the people at CL even made this reipce...we got 24....and ours were no bigger than shown in the picture; in fact, some in the photo even looked larger!

These actually did taste to me like the full fat version...they did need more cooking time and the quantity was way off!

The batter was easy to make and went together with no problem. Penzy's cinnamon gave the cookies a slightly hot sensation!

A repeater, but with modifications.

Paul

[SuzyQue]

I made these tonight. Paulryb, I wish I read your post before I made them! I had the EXACT same problems you did...5 minutes was definitely not enought time to bake them. I agree with you that they need about 8 minutes, or even more.

Also, there's no way I made 42 cookies with this recipe. I'd say I got 30-35 or so.

Also, I had issues with the batter. After I added the flour, the batter was dry and crumbly; it did not come together. I added an egg white and that seemed to do the trick.

The results? Yummy! I just wish I knew that the batter consistency and cooking times needed to be tinkered with!

[MaryH]

I'll ask here too. Can someone post this recipe (my April issue hasn't come yet..):( :(

[valchemist]

here is a thread with more reviews and with the recipe.

http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38759&highlight=snickerdoodles

[MaryH]

Thanks Val, I thought it had been posted but when I ran a search I didn't come up with any threads that had it.

Editing to add: I realize it's because my search was "snickerdoodle", not "snickerdoodles" (ah, but if I'd only remebered to add an *)

[karen w]

I made these today with DD(3 y.o). She only spilled a tiny bit of flour out of the bowl when she was whisking together the dry mix!:D
I thought they were really good. I ended up baking mine for 7 min., and they were soft in the middle with a slightly crispy edge. Perfect IMHO!! (I'm not really a snickerdoodle aficionado, though!).
DS 1 and 2, and DH also gave them a thumbs up so I guess they won't last too long in this house!

Karen

[MooMom]

I made these last night they were excellent. DH asked me "Can you make a cookie too good?" LOL

My only complaint is the recipe makes so few cookies. Like the rest of you, I got far fewer than 42 cookies out of the batter...I ended up with only 22. And I made sure the balls were 1inch in diameter!

I cut back on the cinnamon because I used Penzey's. Also, my bake time was more like 8 minutes, not the 5 minutes in the recipe (seems to be a common problem from the other reviews).

I'll be making these again soon, but I think I'll double the recipe next time...if I'm going to dirty up dishes I might as well have something to show for it! :D

[karen w]

I must be the oddball. I did get at least 42 cookies from this recipe(in fact, I think I even got a few extra!). I baked mine for 7 min., but I think they would have been even better after 5 min.! I'm sure that's why everyone else has required more baking time then the recipe stated! My very PICKY nephew visited today, and this was the only thing he would eat all day!! (Glad I don't have the joy of feeding him on a daily basis:p ).

Karen

[HUNGRY!]

I made these last night and I too had to cook them for about 7 minutes. I got 27 (smaller)cookies from the batter. They were great just out of the oven! I took a bite of one this morning however and it was rock hard. Seriously, a lot of expensive dental work could have been caused. I wonder if I would have been better off with just cooking them for five minutes? I think I will try again because they were very easy and the flavor was really good. Anyone else have this problem (I stored them over night in a ziplock after I let them cool).

[Linda in MO]

My 7 yr. old and I made these last night and we thought they turned out great! He really liked handling the dough and smashing them with a glass. We only got 34 cookies, but our dough balls were about 1 1/4 inches big. We had extra cinnamon sugar, so after we smashed the dough we sprinkled extra c.s. over them. I found I liked the cookies better when they were baked on my cheapy non-stick cookie sheet as opposed to my sheet pan covered with a silpat. It could have been that I slightly underbaked the ones on the silpat though. So I think you have to play around with the baking time a bit depending on how big your cookies are and what kind of cookie sheet you use.
Hungry, I wonder if you baked your cookies too long. Mine are still soft today.

[SuzyQue]

HUNGRY, you can try putting some chunks of bread in the ziploc with the cookies. I do this and it keeps the cookies soft. The bread gets hard instead, somehow!!

[SuzyQue]

By the way, I made these again recently, and I really like them! Dh does too. I still had some issues with the cookie size and baking times, but I think that, like Linda in MO put it, that's because I'm making the cookies too big to cook in 5 minutes.

[JulieAnn]

We loved these!I got about 45 cookies and cooking them 5 minutes isn't quite enough. I'd like to try cutting out a little bit more butter and replacing with more corn syrup.

[HejazSunKat]

I liked these too and they're also a 'pretty' cookie. Mine spread, domed and cracked nicely. Like others, I got nowhere near the quantity the recipe states. I got 23 and thought the size of them was reasonable, not extra big. I found my dough to be dry once all ingredients were put together as well but I didn't amend it and they were fine. Based on this thread I baked them 8 minutes but when I tried one I thought they were still underdone so I threw them back in the oven for another couple of minutes. 2 days later they're still moist and chewy. This is a good recipe and I'll be making them again.

[HeatherTx]

Thanks for the bread in the bag tip. Mine were rock hard the day after too. I will try that next time.

I got 37 cookies but they do puff up when they bake so they ended up being a decent size. I cooked them 9 minutes which seemed perfect until they ended up so hard the next day. Maybe try a tiny bit less cooking time when I make them again.

My dough was very crumbly too and never came together but it was still easy to make the balls. My kids had a blast smashing the balls with the glass.

I think these will be our cookie of choice from now on. I was looking for something without chocolate to have on hand for the kids. I also like that this snickerdoodle recipe doesn't have Crisco and uses a small amount of real butter instead.

[foodfiend]

I made these tonight and they taste great right out of the oven. If they're still good tomorrow, this will be a repeater cookie.

[bbenedict]

So tell me, would anyone's cookies have look browned if it hadn't been for the cinnamon sugar mixture?

I took mine out at seven minutes and thought they could've use more. They were soft and slightly chewy but without the cinnamon sugar they wouldn't have had any color at all.

Did anyone who baked them for longer have a browner cookie?

Also, i have always used insulated baking sheets because when I cook "real" cookies with "real" butter they never burn. Do you think that might be why things aren't browing? I never have problems with regulr cooies.

Bonnie

[HejazSunKat]

Hi Bonnie - I baked them for a little longer than other people did but with the cinnamon on them I really couldn't tell.

I've been thinking of trying them with a little lemon zest and maybe throw in some vanilla or lemon extract just for something different in which case I wouldn't use the cinnamon on them (I think I'd roll them in plain granulated though). My guess is they would brown on the bottom and a little on top but still be a relatively pale cookie. I bake on crapola baking sheets and I think I got a similar result to the magazine and to other posters so I don't think it's your sheets. I think it's a function of the recipe. There's nothing wrong with pale cookies unless you just don't find that appealing.

[bbenedict]

Thanks Hejaz,

Glad to know how long you cooked yours and that yours weren't necessarily browner. Also glad to hear that the cookie sheets don't seem to matter. I must confess, I do like a little browning on my cookies but again would rather they were moist and chewy so I may have to sacrifice color.

Your variations sound most yummy. You'll have to let all of us know when you try them how they turn out. Rolling them in plain sugar sounds like the way to go!

Thanks again!

[paulryb]

I did a variation on these cookies similar to ginger snaps, one of my favorite cookies, by adding 2T molasses to the recipe and 1/2 t cinnamon, 1/2 t mace, 3/4 t ginger. Cloves might make a good addition too, and some candied ginger if you like it. I'm still trying to make my ginger cookies spicy hot, but they've not come out that way (maybe I should add cayenne). On second thought, I could have left out the vanilla in the recipe, but it was fine with it in.

Anyway, one of the reasons I like this snickerdoodle recipe is because it's so low fat; Leonard's HARVEST GINGER SNAPS and simiarly, GRANDMA'S GINGER COOKIES, both faves of mine, and members of this board too, both use more fat.(3/4 cup)

Paul

[Deedy]

Did you still use whole milk? I thought about using skim....

[paulryb]

I used skim...didn't even know it said to use whole!

I usually always use skim, unless for some kind of sauce.

Paul

[Peggy]

I made these last night for Book Club and was very disappointed. I wish I'd read this thread first because the baking time was also off for me. I baked them for about 8 minutes and wondered if they still needed more time. Didn't like the flavor or texture at all. They were very "doughy" tasty. Not sure how many cookies I would have gotten out of my batter because I only had a chance to bake #16 before my guests arrived. This morning I decided they weren't worth the calories and threw out the remaining batter.:(

Peggy