Snickerdoodles and first-meal traditions

The ultimate comfort food

We have a tradition for the first meal we eat on our first night in a new apartment. It’s not particularly original – we order pizza. I remember when we moved from Brooklyn to Manhattan, in one of the most hellish days I’ve ever spent – just try to imagine navigating a U-Haul through the streets of the Big Apple – and we finally allowed ourselves to relax, surrounded by boxes, with a pesto pizza from the parlor a few blocks down Amsterdam Ave.

Last weekend, we moved from our well-appointed but tiny apartment in Wallingford to a more spacious pad in Madrona. We now have a washer and dryer, a dishwasher and a (gasp) full-sized refrigerator. The first night, with an almost-bare fridge and most cutlery still deep in boxes, we again ordered pesto pizza, indulging in a garlicky chicken topping.

You get a freebie on moving day. But after that, you have to roll up your sleeves and put away enough kitchen supplies to actually make use of that nice fancy kitchen you wanted so badly. For me, the odds are good I’ll break in my oven with cookies.

The critical components

It used to be chocolate chip was my standby, but Jeremy loves snickerdoodles with an almost-religious fervor. I can get behind that. Snickerdoodles are essentially sugar cookies with the addition of cream of tartar for that distinctive tang, given a quick roll in cinnamon and sugar. Some bakers believe they should be thin and flat, and I’ve made them that way before. We prefer, however, a plumper cookie. That gives you a slightly crunchy crust on the exterior that gives way when you bite it into a chewy center.

My recipe is adapted from an AllRecipes.com entry called “Mrs. Sigg’s Snickerdoodles“. It might not be that glamorous to use an online recipe, but I’ve tried the America’s Test Kitchen version and it honestly wasn’t as good. Also, the AllRecipes one has almost 2500 reviews and over 33,000 versions saved. Sometimes, the masses are just right.

Mmm...cookies...

Snickerdoodles

From AllRecipes.com

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup shortening, such as Crisco
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. cream of tartar
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 2 Tb. sugar
• 2 tsp. cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Using a hand or stand mixer, cream together butter, shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla. Slowly stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt (ok, ok, you can sift the dry ingredients together first if you’re legit like that.)

Cover a baking sheet with a parchment paper. In a small ziplock sandwich bag, mix the sugar and cinnamon.

Shape the dough into small balls about 3/4 inch in diameter. I find it works best to do this with your hands. Then drop each ball of dough into the ziplock bag and shake it around so it’s coated on all sides.

Arrange the balls of dough on the baking sheet with some space in between and then gently press on the top of each one – don’t flatten them, just dimple the tops a bit.

Bake 8-10 minutes, until the bottoms are light brown and the tops start to crack a bit. Don’t wait until the tops are golden-brown – they will be dry and overcooked at that point.

Makes 18-24 cookies, depending on size.