How To Make Snickerdoodles

Baking is an art much like any other form of art. It takes practice, determination and creativity.

You need to practice how to get the oven temperature right, with all cookie recipes; you have to practice how to use and how much of each ingredient you use. You need to become familiar with your tools and media (in this case, food) to use them properly and make them do what you want them to do.

Determination is needed because you have to leave yourself room for mistakes.You're going to make mistakes, you have to be mentally prepared to shrug your shoulders and say "oh well, what did I learn, and let's try it again. Determination is a must. It took me 2 years to perfect my peanut butter cookies recipe. They have a very rich peanut butter taste and they are the softest peanut butter cookies you will ever eat!

Creativity is also important because you want to be able to provide something new to capture the attention of your audience. In this case, possibly family or friends. In my case, customers who are currently buying from bakeries. I have a very extensive list on the Research and Development page of website with a voting poll so visitors can vote for the next cookie flavor they want me to develop. Some are classic cookies while others are quite unique.

If you want to see my R&D list, simply click on the picture for this module.

Baking is best done in steps or stages. The first is prep work. Always clean your work area before you get started. A clean kitchen helps prevent the spread of bacteria, dirt, animal hair, allergens, and dust. I even dust my ceiling fan before I begin working in my kitchen because God forbid a speck of dust land in my handiwork. People have numerous allergies so you want to minimize the spread or cross-contamination of foods between recipes.

Next, make sure you have everything you need for the recipe. You don't want to have to run out to the store while you're in the middle of everything to get eggs or flour. Always check your ingredients are fresh and haven't spoiled or gone stale. These will greatly affect your outcomes. That's the worst and will throw everything off completely, including your plans for the day if you timed everything just right for guests to arrive.

Take a look at the ingredients:

1 1/2 cups of sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 3/4 cups of flour
1 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Topping:
2 tablespoons of sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon

Start collecting and gathering the things you need to put the recipe together including any bowls, spoons, spatulas, mixers, knives, forks, pans, etc. I would recommend cracking open your eggs into a separate bowl to make sure they don't have any imperfections. I learned that one the hard way once. I cracked open an egg into my batter and it was fertilized so blood was all over the place and I had to throw out the whole batch. What a waste of time and ingredients.

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When cooking, guessing or throwing in a dash of this and a pinch of that works just fine. When baking, this rule does not apply and should never be used unless you are trying to experiment and figure out your own recipe. Although, you should still measure exactly so that if it works out for you, you can refer back to it and replicate it. Always follow the recipe and measure exactly! When measuring out flour I tap the measuring cup and take a flat blade such as the back of a butter knife to scrape the excess off the top. This helps ensure the exact measurement of flour for the cookies recipe. I use the same method for my packed brown sugar (which I make myself) and with Crisco if I use it.

Ventilation is important to keep the kitchen cool and prevent exhaustion and overheating of yourself. A range hood is a great way to pull the hot air out of the kitchen and keep it at a comfortable temperature for working in. A ceiling fan or desk fan to move air around the room and house or facility is even better to keep the kitchen at an optimum temperature for working.

Exhaustion and dehydration are dangerous places to be since you can lose focus and make mistakes. I'm not talking about adding too much flour or using heavy cream instead of sour cream. By mistakes, I am referring to those you wouldn't make if you were able to focus. Mistakes such as cutting a fruit and not paying attention to the knife blade in relation to your fingers or trying to grab a pan from the oven without an oven mitt. Believe me, these kinds of things happen when exhaustion sets in; I'm speaking from experience.

You also want to keep a drink around to prevent dehydration. Dehydration can lead to some of those mistake laden scenarios mentioned above. Too make sure you don't spill in anything, a sport bottle works great but always keep it handy.

Haven't you ever noticed that when you bite into a dessert or pastry from a bakery the whole dessert is consistent and you don't get sudden bites of salt or baking soda? Bend, blend, blend, and when you think you're done, blend again. Oh, by the way, preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Here's what you're going to do: When the recipe tells you to mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl, DO IT! In this case, measure your flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl. Take a fork and blend thoroughly scraping the sides of the bowl and blending even more. This will make sure you blend the salt and baking soda throughout the flour mixture. You will have a nicely, evened flavor throughout your cookies.

Next, measure out your sugar, butter and vanilla extract and cream these together with the mixer. Add 1 egg at a time and blend them into the creamed mixture. By blending each egg individually, it will help ensure even distribution of the egg in the batter so you can get even lift out of your cookies. Add half the flour mixture you previously blended and blend this into the creamed mixture. Once fully blended, add the rest o the flour mixture and blend thoroughly.

I another bowl, measure out the sugar and cinnamon and blend it with a fork. Take a spoon full of cookie dough and roll it into 1 inch balls. Roll them into the sugar/cinnamon mixture and place them 2 inches apart on an ungreased pan. I personally prefer to use air bake pans when baking my cookies. I also rotate them in the oven to make sure they cook evenly yet stay soft. I start them on the bottom and when they rise all the way, I rotate them to the top shelf and place another pan underneath to prevent the bottoms from baking too much more. Bake them for 8-10 minutes until you see the edges just starting to brown. Remove them from the oven and wait about 2 minutes. Remove them from the pans to the cooling racks to cool. Once cooled, enjoy!

Yield: 24
Calories: 146
Fat: 4.4 grams
Cholesterol: 28 mg