Food You Can Eat: Spicy Snickerdoodles

Spicy Snickerdoodles use two less common ingredients, actual Crisco shortening and cream of tarter.

What is cream of tartar? According to AllRecipes, it’s a dry, powdery, acidic byproduct of fermenting grapes into wine called potassium hydrogen tartrate or tartaric acid. (We’ve discussed baking as alchemy or science). Why is cream of tartar in snickerdoodle cookies? it gives snickerdoodles a unique, tangy flavor, and “the chew happens because cream of tartar prevents sugar in the cookie dough from crystalizing into crunchiness” .

• 1 ½ cups white sugar
• ½ cup butter
• ½ cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 2 ¾ cup flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup white sugar
• ¼ cup turbinado sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix first sugar, butter, shortening, eggs and spices. Add in from flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Put the ¼ cup each of white and turbinado sugar and the 1 tablespoon of cinnamon in a small bowl, mix.

You can vary the spices to taste – I bet that Five Spice Powder (cinnamon, cloves, fennel, star anise, and Szechwan peppercorns ) would be a great addition – I only just thought of it now.

Roll 1 ¼  inch balls of dough in the sugar-cinnamon mix, but on cookie sheet. Bake at for 8-10 minutes. Quick and easy.