Best Gingerbread Snickerdoodles Recipes

GINGERBREAD SNICKERDOODLES

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, molasses, and 1 cup sugar on medium speed until creamy and smooth, scraping bowl occasionally. With machine running, add eggs and beat until incorporated, scraping bowl occasionally. Turn speed to low. Gradually add flour mixture and beat until just incorporated. (You can make the dough by hand, too: In a large bowl, beat butter, molasses and sugar with a wooden spoon until creamy and smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until incorporated. While stirring with the spoon, gradually add flour mixture and stir until no traces of flour remain.)
• Cover bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm enough to roll, at least 30 minutes and up to 2 days.
• Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. In medium bowl, mix remaining 1/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Portion 3/4-ounce (1 1/2 tablespoons) dough by packing dough level into a 3/4-ounce cookie scoop or scooping a rounded ball in a measuring tablespoon. Drop into the cinnamon sugar and roll to coat. Put on a prepared sheet. Repeat with dough and cinnamon sugar, spacing balls 2 inches apart, until sheet is filled.
• Bake until tops crackle and bottoms are golden brown, 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake; the cookies should look dry and set. While first batch bakes, scoop and roll remaining dough, then bake after first batch comes out. Cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

GINGERBREAD SNICKERDOODLES

Steps:

• To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl and electric mixer) combine the butter, sugars, egg, and beat on medium-high speed until creamed and well combined, about 4 minutes.
• Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the molasses, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, optional salt, and beat on medium-high speed until combined and smooth, about 1 minute.
• Stop, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cream of tartar, and beat on low speed until just combined, about 45 seconds.
• Using a medium 2-inch cookie scoop, form two tablespoon mounds (I made 20). Place mounds on a large plate or tray, cover with plasticwrap, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours, up to 5 days. The dough is soft, mushy, limp, and isn't suitable for baking until it's been chilled. Do not bake with unchilled dough because cookies will bake thinner, flatter, and be more prone to spreading.
• Preheat oven to 350F, line baking sheets with Silpats, or spray with cooking spray; set aside.
• Add sugar and cinnamon to a small bowl and stir to combine.
• Roll each mound of dough through the coating, liberally coating all sides. After all mounds have been coated, I like to go back and double-dip each mound to get an extra-thick coating.
• Place coated mounds on baking sheets, spaced at least 2 inches apart (I bake 8 cookies per sheet).
• Bake for about 8 to 9 minutes, or until edges have set and tops are have crackled; don't overbake for soft cookies (I bake mine 8 to 8 1/2 minutes and they're extremely soft and a touch underdone but firm up in time; for crispier cookies, bake longer). Cookies firm up as they cool.
• Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for about 10 minutes before serving. I let them cool on the baking sheet and don't use a rack.