Snickerdoodles

The fall after I graduated from high school, I worked at a mall in Towson, MD at an Imaginarium toy store. There was a Great Cookie right down the hall and I remember being in love with their Snickerdoodles. They were so soft and chewy and sugary I am really glad that I don't work near a Great Cookie anymore, because I can guarantee that I would be there everyday buying a sleeve of those things.

I realized a few weeks ago that I had never made them, and I had an opportunity so I decided to give them a try. The ones I made were not soft and chewy like the ones I used to love at The Great Cookie. But they were totally delicious. The recipe was posted on the What's Cooking message board on The Nest by nestie I&R_4_23_06. She got the recipe from Cooking Light. I didn't know it was a Cooking Light recipe until I had made 2 or 3 batches of them. Turns out, if you make only 30 cookies, they are only 99 calories per cookie! Yay! I usually get about 34-36 cookies out of this recipe. We had a lot of fun making them. Maura loved rolling the dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture.

Snickerdoodles (source: Cooking Light)

3/4 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (about 6 3/4 ounces)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 400°.

Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter in a medium bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and egg.

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Add flour mixture to butter mixture; beat just until combined. Shape dough into 30 balls.

Combine 1/3 cup granulated sugar and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon in a small shallow dish. Roll balls in sugar mixture, and place 2 inches apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 8 minutes or until tops crack. Cool on pans 1 minute. Remove from pans; cool on a wire rack.

Nutritional Information

CALORIES 99(30% from fat); FAT 3.3g (sat 2g,mono 0.9g,poly 0.2g); IRON 0.5mg; CHOLESTEROL 15mg; CALCIUM 17mg; CARBOHYDRATE 16.9g; SODIUM 59mg; PROTEIN 0.9g; FIBER 0.3g