Sugar, Spice and Everything Nice

That's what Chai Snickerdoodles are made of.  Well, in all honesty, there's some other stuff in there too.  Like butter (heck, yes!), flour and eggs.  Basically, some par-for-the-course cookie ingredients.  The cookies themselves, however, are not par.  They're more like birdies.  Or eagles.  But, let's break away from this entire golf metaphor and move on to something with which I am far more familiar.  (Random point of interest: I am certifiably horrible at golf, despite promising though sporadic performances during visits to the driving range.)

I wanted to reference this recipe hardcore back when the oven was a carbon container and the Easy-Off was but a pipe dream at the end of a very long and dark tunnel.  However, because I bake these more often than just once, I held off and gave up another recipe in its place.

My friend, Hannah, first introduced me to this recipe in high school when we had a Christmas bake-off.  Nothing says holidays like spending precious moments with friends in the kitchen making something that tastes wonderful.  I mean to say that those are memories that you carry with you for a while.  Thusly, we are talking about it right now!

Before I give up and we get into the baking portion of this, I do have a random observation about this cookie recipe in particular.  I have made these a grand total of... six (?) times.  Each and every single time that I have made these cookies they come out differently.  For example, the first time, they were more rotund and puffy.  Subsequent times, they have been flat, crispy, chewy and probably combinations/variations thereof.  I have no doubt that they will turn out slightly different for you as well.  However, no matter what they look like or the firmness of them (crunchy vs. soft) they are still lovely little things.  Even with coffee.

So, without further delay, let us get down to the baking!

p.s.  You know what I miss most about baking at home?  Multiple baking sheets.  You wouldn't believe how much longer it takes to bake with only one cookie sheet.  Maybe Santa will leave one for me under the Christmas tree.  (Mom, if you're reading this, MASSIVE HINT!)(And much love, duh! ^_^)



Chai Snickerdoodles

Now don't those look yummy?  Spicy, sugary cookies that stand alone or walk in a friendly manner with a cup of coffee (or tea, I'm not biased).  On a completely unrelated note, I am totally cooking on Sunday afternoons and not evenings more often; just look at how well daylight and my camera get along! ^__^

You will need:

• 2 cups sugar (Granulated, ftw!)
• 2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I'm not brand-name dropping, but the one I used was the Club House one.  The original recipe, which is linked at the bottom, calls for cardamom but this works just as well)
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 1 cup butter, soft (You can also use margarine; I've gone both ways.  No snickers, please!  I just realized that is sort of a pun.  No pun intended and no dirty-joke chuckling please!)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 tsp salt (I totally 'pinch' this out; no measuring equipment required)
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda

How it's done:

1. Preheat your oven to 350F.
2. Combine the sugar and spices in a bowl then scoop out 1/2 cup of it and set it aside.  (You know that good things can only come from spiced sugar).
3. Whisk (or sift) together the flour, salt, cream of tartar and baking soda and set aside for subsequent use.
4. Cream the butter (or margarine) with the sugar mixture until light and fluffy.  (This step is really spicy so be careful not to sneeze into your cookies.  Or, if you do, don't mention it when handing out the results of your hard work.  Just saying.)
5. Add in the eggs one at a time.
6. Mix in the vanilla extract.
7. Slowly incorporate the flour mixture into the wet junk and stir until there is no streaking or dry clumps.
8. Grab walnut-sized chunks of dough, roll into nice round balls in your hands.
9. Roll the balls through the sugar that you set aside before and set them down (as balls) on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.  (This is especially easy if you spread the sugar over a plate with a lid or a super shallow bowl.  I like the plate method, but I'm not going to preach it to you.)
10. Bake for 11-13 minutes.  (Like we've seen before, this is going to depend on your oven and how you and your oven interact.  Mine is picky, so is my mum's, so the oven times vary a little.)
11. Take the cookies out of the oven and let them just hang out on the cookie sheet for a bit before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
12. Store 'em up in an airtight container or appropriately decorated cookie tin. (It is December after all!)

The recipe that is listed above was retrieved from the internet a long while back (I will not detail when because that would place a date on my still ambiguous countenance).  I do know for sure that it was retrieved from Nicole over at Baking Bites.  Check out Chai Snickerdoodles on her site and, if you have some time, definitely check out the other neat stuff there too; she's a great blogger!  Plus, there are also reviews on baking stuff and products that are totally useful.  ^_^



KitchKem is currently rocking House MD season three on her DVD player.