brown butter white chocolate snickerdoodles
Forget snickerdoodles, how about SICKerdoodles because these things are delicious.
Don’t yell at me, I know that was an awful joke.
I could not dub my holiday cookie box a true cookie box sans a snickerdoodle recipe. These luscious, nutty, puffy gems are laden with brown butter and loaded with white chocolate chips for a unique treat that doesn’t veer from the classic snickerdoodle formula. The cookie balls are dusted in cinnamon sugar and speckled with more white chocolate in the midst of baking (if you wish. I wished).
When J and I visited Philadelphia for the first time, we chanced upon a lovely breakfast and lunch cafe that sold massive, chewy snickerdoodle cookies. We had just finished trotting up the Schuylkill River Trail, including a trek up the Rocky Steps, and needed to hunker inside somewhere to escape the cold wind and get some food in us. Naturally, breakfast had to include one of those monstrous goodies. I think this is when I first learned of J’s love for snickerdoodles. It inspired me to both want to make them more often and also keep them as far away from the house as possible. The former urge obviously won in this case.
Brownie (Butter) Points
A snickerdoodle is not a snickerdoodle without cream of tartar. The powder reacts with the baking soda and creates the characteristic crackle and puff in a snickerdoodle cookie. Recipes without it cannot properly call themselves snickerdoodles, in my opinion. They’re probably delicious, but certainly misnamed.
These snicks’ contain classic cookie dough ingredients, with the addition of brown butter to up the ante on the flavor and push forth the white chocolate chips sprinkled throughout the dough.
To start with the brown butter, melt on the stove over medium heat until the butter froths and turns golden. This takes about 5-8 minutes. Pour the butter into a tempered glass jar (important, else you’ll have an explosion on your hands) and set in the freezer until parts start to harden. You don’t need the butter to totally solidify and certainly don’t want it to freeze.
After this, throw the brown butter and another stick of regular softened butter into a bowl and cream with white sugar and brown sugar. Beat in an egg and egg yolk, one at a time, then vanilla and the Holy Cream of Tartar.
Next, sift together some flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt in a separate bowl. Beat into the wet ingredients, in two turns, until just combined. Fold in white chocolate chips.
Nothing to Snicker About
The second must-do with the doodles: a rollabout in cinnamon sugar. Toss 1/3 cup sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon until nicely incorporated.
Roll 1 1/2 inch balls of dough into the cinnamon sugar until fully coated and set onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake the sparkly balls for 7 minutes, tap the baking sheet on the counter and press a few more white chocolate chips into each cookie, then bake 2-3 minutes longer. Doughy centers are desirable here, as the cookies will continue to bake as they cool on the sheets once removed from the oven.
Get your milk or nondairy milk, or a cup of cocoa, ready to receive a good dunk of these doodles. Sit by your lit and ornamented Christmas tree or before a crackling fire and share laughs, a wintry cocktail or two, and a plate of cookies. Sounds like the perfect December activity to me.
Tried this recipe out? Leave a comment below with your thoughts, and don’t forget to come say hi on Instagram and show me what you made!
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
- 1/3 cup cinnamon sugar
Instructions
- Melt 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the butter froths and darkens to a rich golden color, about 5 minutes. Pour into a tempered jar and freeze for 20-25 minutes until some of the butter solidifies. A bit of liquid is okay.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a large baking sheet with parchment.
- In a large bowl, cream the brown butter and remaining stick of butter with the sugar and brown sugar until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in the egg, then the egg yolk, until each are fully incorporated. Beat in the vanilla and cream of tartar.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, and salt. In two turns, whip into the wet ingredients until just combined, but no longer. Fold in the white chocolate chips.
- Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and toss in cinnamon sugar (for this, I tossed together 1/3 cup of sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon). Set onto the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining cookie dough, leaving 2-3 inches of space between each cookie. Bake for 7 minutes, then remove the pan and tap a few times on the countertop to flatten the tops. If desired, sprinkle each cookie with a few more white chocolate chips. Bake an additional 2-3 minutes until the edges are set but the center is still doughy. Cool on the baking sheet.
