Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

Raise your hand if you, like me, love snickerdoodles beyond any other cookie on the face of the earth. Raise your other hand if you, also like me, really don’t think snickerdoodles need to be messed with to make them wonderful. Raise your foot (since we’re running out of hands) if you think tinkering with snickerdoodles is close-on to blasphemy. Well, now that we’re most of us standing on one foot with both hands in the air, let me make a confession (because at this point, if you raise that other foot to kick me you’re down on your keister. This is what I call self-protection.) I messed with snickerdoodles today. And I didn’t just mess with any snickerdoodles, I messed with the best, most sacred recipe for them in the entire world; My Grandma’s.

My Grandma’s snickerdoodles are the cookies that made my teen years not so gloomy, clad-in-black and angsty. Simple, pure barely sweet sugar and butter cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked until puffy, crisp on the outside, and tender as could be on the inside. Life was very good when Grandma put a plate of them in front of me.

I have been playing with skillet cookies (as seen here, here, and here). Reasoning that if chocolate chip cookies worked, so would a host of other flavors, I boldly went where Grandma’s cookies have not gone* and plopped the whole batch of snickerdoodle dough into a sugar and butter coated cast-iron skillet. And ain’t a thing wrong with it, let me tell you.

Why bother skillet-ing the cookie? Why not just roll the dough into balls and proceed as normal? Because we can. And because we’re talking about one skillet, cramming the cookie dough in and baking. Hello time saver. You’re awfully handsome.

This is different than Grandma’s snickerdoodles. For starters, and most obviously, it’s one mondo huge cookie. It’s deep dish. It’s mega, mega. Secondly, and more subtly, there is a high ratio of caramelization and crisp on the bottom of the cookie. This is a-okay by me. When cooked at the lower end of the time frame given in the recipe, you get a more chewy, moist center. The longer you leave it in the oven, the higher the crisp layer ascends. Cook accordingly.

But do cook. And I’ll just bet you have everything you need in the pantry and refrigerator to make a pan full of Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie in time to have a warm wedge of this topped with a scoop of melting vanilla ice cream* in your mitts before your evening date with the couch. It is a mighty nice thing. And I do believe Grandma will approve.

*My ice cream is winging its way homeward in the back of my husband’s car as I type.

Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

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Ingredients:

• 1 cup (2 sticks/8 ounces) butter, softened to room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces by weight) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups (11 3/4 ounces by weight) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

In a mid-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs until the mixture is smooth and lightened in color. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix together until evenly and thoroughly combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Rub a cast-iron (or other oven-proof) skillet with a small amount of butter. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture over the bottom of the skillet. Scrape the cookie dough into the pan. Moisten your hands with water and pat out the dough evenly, covering the bottom of the skillet completely. Evenly sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the cookie dough. Bake the cookie for 30-45 minutes. When the edges have browned and the center is golden brown the cookie is ready to be pulled from the oven. At this stage, the cookie, when sliced, will be very moist. If you like your cookies crispier, leave in the oven for closer to the 45 minute mark. When done to your liking transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you can slice the cookie into wedges. This is best served slightly warm with ice cream melting over it. But really? What in life isn’t better that way?

Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie

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Rebecca Lindamood

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The classic snickerdoodle cinnamon and sugar rendered as one huge deep dish cookie with a high ratio of caramelization and crisp on the bottom of the cookie.

Ingredients

  

1x2x3x

• 1 cup butter 2 sticks/8 ounces, softened to room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 10 1/2 ounces by weight
• 2 large eggs
• 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 11 3/4 ounces by weight
• 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Instructions

 

• In a mid-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, soda and salt. Set aside.
• In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream together the butter, sugar and eggs until the mixture is smooth and lightened in color. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix together until evenly and thoroughly combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Rub a cast-iron (or other oven-proof) skillet with a small amount of butter. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture over the bottom of the skillet. Scrape the cookie dough into the pan. Moisten your hands with water and pat out the dough evenly, covering the bottom of the skillet completely. Evenly sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar over the cookie dough. Bake the cookie for 30-45 minutes. When the edges have browned and the center is golden brown the cookie is ready to be pulled from the oven. At this stage, the cookie, when sliced, will be very moist. If you like your cookies crispier, leave in the oven for closer to the 45 minute mark. When done to your liking transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, you can slice the cookie into wedges. This is best served slightly warm with ice cream melting over it. But really? What in life isn't better that way?

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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