Chocolate Snickerdoodles

 

Chooooocolate Snickerdoodles.  Oh yeah that’s right, Chocolate Snickerdoodles.  Who woulda thought that was a thing?  Well, now we know! 

Years ago, yikes, years, cough…I happened to drop by a friend’s place just after she had finished baking up some cookies, her favorites she said.  Kindly, she gave me one or two, I ate them, and I distinctly remember thinking, “whoa, what in the heck are these little pillows of heaven?”

Surely she told me the name, I mean, that’s what friends do, right?  Why did these eternally seem a mystery from that point on then?  For the life of me, I had no idea what they were, what they were called, and back then, the internet, well, no such thing.  Yikes, see?, that’s how many years.  Boy that’s scary.

Moving on!  

Wow, super scary….

Ok ok, seriously, moving on.

Years later, once the internet came around oy dear me, I unearthed a recipe for Snickerdoodles and thought, huh, was this it?  I wonder.  By then, my memory of her cookies was a tad fuzzy.

So I baked them and yes that’s what they were.  Huh.

I knowwww.  

I know.  I know this sounds bonkers and like I’m totally making this up but I in fact went my whole entire childhood into my twenties (which was oh, just last week of course), without ever having eaten a Snickerdoodle.  I’m sure that’s a crime against humanity or some such other wrong.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the friend but what I do have is an undying love of and curiosity about Snickerdoodles thanks to her. 

Um, yum.

Lo, time trundles on, I bake and bake and yet for some reason, I rarely make straight up Snickerdoodles.  I really don’t know why as they are wildly delicious cookies.  Probably because I was flying solo and a batch normally makes about fifty bajillion cookies.

Since, I’ve discovered a couple related types of Snickerdoodle cookies, variations of which I am sure will end up on this site.

So today is Chocolate Snickerdoodles.  And what could be wrong with that?!  Ab-so-freakin’-lutely nothin’.  Chocolate.  Cinnamon and sugar.  The slight chew of the cookie….oooh.  Yes.

Now, you can use any cocoa powder* you’d like, but seeing as there’s baking soda in the mix, natural (aka the type readily found in grocery stores) will function best.  The original recipe from Well Floured calls for, which quite honestly I’d never heard of, double dutch dark.*

Mmk, get yourself set up with the ingredients and let’s make some Chocolate Snickerdoodles!

Set up and ready to go!

Real simple…..whisk together the dry ingredients in a small bowl then toss the butter and sugars into a mixer bowl, cream those together.  

Speaking of creaming butter and sugar together, it’s a topic that generates a good deal of confusion.  I recently read this article so hopefully those tips and pointers will clear up any issues or uncertainties you may have had.

Fluffy fluffy!

Ok, once everything is nice and fluffy in that mixer bowl, add in one egg, stir around, then add in the other egg. 

Eggs blended in, woot.

Ah, another perennial question right there, why add one egg at a time?  Gotchur’ answer right here.

All righty, slowly tap in your dry ingredients, mix that around until just barely combined…

All in!

…and then you’ll let that dough rest.  Yep, let ‘er rest for thirty minutes.  

The original instructions don’t state but you can pop the dough in the fridge or leave it out.  Cold dough will make for puffier cookies while you may get more spread, flatter cookies, with a dough left at room temp.  I’ll leave this one up to you though for reference, I left mine out.

See, all hydrated and ready to bake.

Flip the oven on and line a baking sheet with some parchment paper or, my favorite washable and reusable liner, a silicone baking mat.*  

Scoop out a slightly fat tablespoon of dough (like a measuring spoon tablespoon), gingerly shape it into a ball (don’t get the dough too warm in your hands), then roll it all around in the cinnamon and sugar.

Roll, roll, set.

Plop those on your sheet a decent distance apart, a couple inches, to account for spread then bake ‘em up!

With a dark cookie, yeah, it’s hard to tell when they’re done, so look for slightly dry, puffy set edges and the telltale snickerdoodle cracking across the surface.  Inside the cracks, the color will be a deep dark brown and almost look not baked but they are.

So they’re kinda flat on the edges, look set and dried while the center has puffed up and cracked.  This is what you’re looking for.

Then just let ‘em cool on a rack and enjoy! 

Cooled and ready to stuff in your face.

Whooo doggie, Chocolate Snickerdoodles! 

I just know you’re gonna love these!

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Chocolate Snickerdoodles

Yield

24 cookies

Prep time

15 Min

Cook time

8 Min

Inactive time

30 Min

Total time

53 Min

What could possibly top one of the greatest cookies of all time? Why making them chocolate, of course!

Ingredients

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup (42 g) cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons (7 g) cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) fine sea salt
• 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, room temperature (2 sticks, 16 tablespoons)
• 1 cup (213 g) brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup (99 g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon (5 g) vanilla
• 2 tablespoons (25 g) granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons (5 g) cinnamon

Instructions

1. In a small bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt then whisk until well mixed.
2. Add the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar to a stand mixer bowl and cream everything together on medium.
3. Once the butter and sugars are fluffy and have lightened in color, turn the mixer speed down to low and add one egg. Add the second egg after the first has mixed in then add the vanilla.
4. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the previously combined dry ingredients. Stir until the flour mix has barely been blended in, turn off the mixer, then mix by hand with a spatula a final few times.
5. Let the dough rest on the counter or in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. About 15 minutes into resting, begin preheating the oven to 400° F (204° C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. In a small bowl, combine the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar with the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon.
6. Scoop about a 1 tablespoon sized hunk of cookie dough, roll it gently into a ball, then roll it around in the cinnamon and sugar, covering it completely.
7. Set the balls of dough on the baking sheet about 3 inches apart to account for spread as they bake.
8. Bake for about 8 minutes. The edges will be slightly puffy and dry while the rest of the cookie will be crackled. Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for about 10 minutes then remove them to a rack to cool completely.

Notes:

Adapted from Well Floured.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

169.29

Fat (grams)

8.34

Sat. Fat (grams)

4.92

Carbs (grams)

22.01

Fiber (grams)

0.73

Net carbs

21.28

Sugar (grams)

12.66

Protein (grams)

2.03

Sodium (milligrams)

106.01

Cholesterol (grams)

35.84

The nutritional information is based on the entire amount. Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

chocolate, cookies, snickerdoodles

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*The cocoa powders and silicone baking mats are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.