Snickerdoodles is probably the best name for a cookie ever. This might be weird for any American friends, but I never really knew what a snickerdoodle was. I don’t think they are a thing in Australia?
That was until now, as I am here with a dairy-free version of the traditional soft and chewy snickerdoodle cookie with little crunchy edges and a big hit of cinnamon sugar, ready to help these become a household name in Oz.
I’ve had only ever read about these intriguing snickerdoodle cookies on American baking blogs, and even then as I didn’t know what they were, I didn’t pay that much attention. I certainly had never eaten one.
But let me tell you, they totally should be a thing here. The best way I can describe it is that they taste like a cinnamon donut in a cookie. Yes, you read that right! And if you are anything like me, there is no way that can be bad! These cookies are soft and chewy with little crunchy edges. So good. And so fun to say.
So let me tell you a little story about how this cookie came into my life.
A while back, I was in a little town in North Queensland with family. After looking through some old photos we came across my great grandmothers recipe collection. Having never met her, I don’t really know much about her but it was interesting all the same to try and piece together a life through food.
Baking in her day would have been so different. It was simple, it seemed to always be in bulk, and it was good. Nothing super fancy, just heaps of butter and sugar because that’s what makes things taste good!
As we were going through the pile, I decided I wanted to make some of the recipes. A lot of them were hand written or, like this one typed, but where they came from we have no idea. I wanted to test them, make any adjustments needed to the recipe so that it works with our modern baking measurements and see how they went.
It was pretty obvious that I was going to try the snickerdoodles first. I have no idea if my great grandmother ever actually used to make these, or if like me she simply saw the recipe, though it was a cool name for a cookie and saved it. Either way, I like that something this simple can transcend time and I can feel a little connection to the past.
So here we have an easy but delicious cookie that purely by its name will raise an eyebrow or two with intrigue, but will have everyone asking for another.
A dairy-free version of the traditional soft and chewy snickerdoodle cookie with little crunchy edges and a big hit of cinnamon sugar.
- 1 cup dairy-free spread*
- 1 ½ white sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ¾ cups plain flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
- 1/4 cup white sugar extra
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- In a large bowl, mix dairy-free spread* and sugar with an electric handheld mixer until combined. Continuing to mix, add in eggs one at a time then vanilla until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, sift flour and combine with cream of tartar, salt, and bicarbonate soda. Mix into the wet ingredients a little at a time until all has been combined. Mixture should still be a little sticky**.
- In a small bowl combine extra sugar and cinnamon. Roll the cookie dough into small balls, about 2 teaspoons of dough, and cover in sugar and cinnamon mixture.
- Place balls of dough on a baking sheet lined with baking paper approx 5 cms apart to allow the cookie to spread in the oven. Don’t press the balls down as they will flatten in the oven and the ball shape will create a thicker, softer cookie.
- Bake cookies in a preheated oven at 180 degrees celcius for 10 minutes. The cookies should only have a slight colour around the edges. They will be puffy, but will flatten out and firm up a little as they cool.
* The original recipe used butter, you can certainly do the same but make sure it has softened out of the fridge first. To make this recipe dairy-free, I used Nuttelex Buttery which is a dairy-free spread and is soft straight out of the fridge which worked perfectly for this recipe.
**At this stage the mixture should be fine to immediately bake. I made these on a very hot and humid night in Queensland, therefore I opted to chill my cookie dough for an hour and a half so it wasn’t so soft to prevent spreading (ie, flat cookies) in the oven. If you live in a very hot climate I would encourage you to do the same.
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