butterscotch snickerdoodles
Butterscotch, you salty-savory-sweet temptress. I don’t use it often, but I got the hankering for its decadent enchantment, and thus butterscotch snickerdoodles were born. Traditional soft, chewy dough base rolled in cinnamon sugar and finished with a heavy-handed drizzle of butterscotch and pinches of flaky salt. 12 Days of Christmas, VE-style, Day 2. Let’s do this.
Like any good recipe, I royally screwed up the first batch. The cookies practically melted, and not in that luscious in-your-mouth way. They actually spread out so much I wondered if I baked tasty albeit incredibly wrong blobs of petroleum jelly. I tinkered with proportions, since I utterly winged this recipe without much guidance, and the second batch blew my mind. Soft, tender, fluffy cookies greeted me out of the oven. I sacrificed one to J as a taste test and it got a heavy pop-eyed look of approval. I may have blown a confetti popper or two. No I didn’t.
An apt start to 12 Days of Christmas, no? These cookies are pretty straightforward. The cream of tartar or vinegar (whichever you have, they both work!) reacts with the baking soda and creates the trademark fluffy bite offered by snickerdoodles. The applesauce lightens up the fat content somewhat, though I could not morally skimp on sugar for health purposes. Aside from the simple swap of the sauce and coconut oil instead of butter, these are the good ole sugary snickerdoodles everyone knows and loves with an extra dose from the butterscotch. Not to fear – it’s not a closet health food. Unless you want to view it that way, then go for it.
Stay with VE for 12 Days of Christmas and don’t forget to leave a comment letting me know what you think! I’m always hanging around Instagram and love interacting with others through the page. Come say hi!
12 Days of Christmas, Day 1: Holiday Cookie Box 2020
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp + 1 tsp coconut oil, divided
- 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cup granulated sugar, divided
- 1 egg
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cream or tartar *see note
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tsp cinnamon, divided
- 1/2 cup butterscotch chips
- flaky sea salt
Instructions
- Heat oven to 400 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.
- In a medium sized bowl, cream 2 tbsp oil, applesauce, brown sugar, and 3/4 cup granulated sugar until combined with a hand mixer or whisk. And egg, vanilla, and cream of tartar, mix until incorporated.
- In another bowl, sift flour, baking soda, salt, and 1 tsp cinnamon together. Fold dry ingredients into wet with a spatula until a dough forms. Your snickerdoodle dough will be sticky. This is okay!
- In a small bowl, mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Roll 1.5 inch balls of dough in between your palms to form a ball, then roll around in the cinnamon sugar until thoroughly covered. Place cookies on baking sheet about 2 inches apart to allow plenty of room to spread. Repeat until all dough is complete. I got 14 cookies out of my batch, but you may get anywhere from 12-16 depending on the size you make your cookies.
- Bake for about 8 minutes. The cookies will look underbaked – this is what you want. Remove from oven and cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheets until set, then move to a wire cooling rack for 20 minutes to cool completely.
- When cookies are cooled, microwave butterscotch chips with 1 tsp coconut oil. My microwave melted the chips nicely after about :90, but times may vary depending on strength of your contraption. Stir. The oil makes the butterscotch easily drizzled. Spoon butterscotch over the cookies in any desirable pattern and sprinkle with flaky salt. If you'd like the adornment to harden, refrigerate cookies for about 10-15 minutes. Serve!
