Cinnamon-Sugar Cookies
Here is my first recipe for The Fingerless Kitchen. I hope you like it. I am so excited to start sharing some of the things that I make for my family and friends. I chose this one because it is just awesome for a BBQ or a picnic. Holds up well for on the go and is big enough to make into ice cream sandwiches. So yummy! Especially if you love cinnamon like me.
For me a good sugar cookie is sweet and buttery with a crisp outer edge and a chewy middle. It’s just what you need sometimes with a good cup of coffee, tea, or a big glass of milk. With this recipe I created a basic sugar cookie dough and added a good helping of cinnamon. Hence, the name Cinnamon Sugar Cookies. I really enjoy the flavor and aroma of cinnamon and the way these cookies bake up ~ they taste like a buttery cinnamon caramel. The kitchen smells great when they are baking, and the warm spice always brings back memories of eating French toast or apple pie as a kid. These cookies are great any time of year. I cannot keep them in my house for long, because they are eaten way too fast, especially when they are still warm. Share with whoever the lucky people will be that day. That would most likely be my mother- and father-in-law, or my neighbors.
Yield: About 4 dozen, depending on the size of the cookie.
Ingredients
The Dough:
3 cups of spooned and leveled all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
2 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
2 sticks of room-temperature, unsalted, butter
2 1/3 cup packed light-brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 tsp. vanilla bean paste
2 large eggs, room temperature
For Rolling:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. Mix together sugar and cinnamon for rolling and set aside. Put flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and cream of tartar in a bowl and whisk till combined and set aside. In another mixing bowl, cream the butter till light and fluffy and then add sugars and vanilla bean paste and beat again until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Slowly add the flour mixture into the butter mixture just until combined (until you see no more flour). Take care not to over mix.
Now you can take about five teaspoons of dough (this is almost two tablespoons), or smaller, if desired, into ball. You may also use a serving scoop to make your balls. I like to use a serving scoop to ensure they’ll all be the same size; I use a # 40 scoop. I fill it with dough and scrape the excess off the sides of the bowl, so the dough is level with the top of the scoop. I drop the dough into the cinnamon sugar mixture to gently coat it, then place the flat side down on the baking sheet.
Place your balls about two inches apart. Use a flat-bottomed cup to gently and evenly flatten the cookies, until they are about 1/4 inch in depth. I can fit about 12 cookies on a pan if I stagger them apart.
I cook the dough one pan at a time on the middle rack turning once at about 7 minutes. You will notice that the cookies have spread and have risen and are just getting golden around the edges. Gently turn the pan and continue cooking until a light golden brown about 3 - 4 minutes longer. When you take the pan out of the oven, give a tap on the counter. This helps them to fall and shows the crackle sugar top. Let the cookies cool on the pan till firm enough to lift to the cooling rack.This would be about two minutes.The cookies should be light golden brown with a crisp crackle on the top and chewy on the inside. The are good up to three days.
If you like your cookies crispy. Leave the cookies in the oven for a minute or two longer, turning once about halfway through cooking, and cool completely.
Tips:
Read through recipes twice.
Before you start cooking, make sure that you take out all of your tools and ingredients. This way you have everything you need to make the recipe and everything can work more smoothly. There is nothing worse than starting to cook only to find that you are out of a main ingredient.
Have patience and get your eggs and butter to room temp. This way you will have a nice and perfectly fluffy butter mixture. Incorporate the flour mixture gently. You don't want tough cookies.
I also like to use AirBake cookie sheets. I find that they I get a very even doneness to my cookies ~ even with my very old oven. Burning cookies is just a real bummer.
When you truly Live, Eat and Love well every day, wonderful things can happen.
Wishing You Joy, from the Fingerless Kitchen ~
Bryony Grealish
Syracuse, NY
