As a child, visiting family in Canada for Christmas, I spent the morning at a living history museum. We experienced various aspects of life as it would have been in pioneer times, including baking in a reconstruction kitchen. The cookies that we baked were small, sweet and flavoured with dusky cinnamon. Perhaps I hadn’t really come across the spice before, perhaps I inhaled rather a lot of it, but for whatever reason, the smell of cinnamon has always had a Proustian affect on me, transporting me back to that dark kitchen on a snowy day.
When searching for a cookie to bake for a picnic this week, I came across a recipe for Snickerdoodles, and I was reminded once more of that cinnamon scent. These are my attempt at re-creating those long remembered cookies. Cinnamon-infused, with a pleasing sugar crunch, they aren’t exactly what I recall, but they come pretty close, and are perfect for dunking in a mug of tea.
Cinnamon Cookies
For the dough:
60g butter
160g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 large egg
240g plain flour
3/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
For the coating:
1 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
Cream the butter and sugar, stir in the vanilla essence. Add the egg and mix well.
Sift together the remaining ingredients and stir these in. Mix until the dough forms a smooth ball. Cover the bowl with cling-film and chill in the fridge for an hour.
Preheat the oven to 170, line two baking sheets with baking parchment.
Mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the coating.
Break off small, walnut-sized pieces of dough and roll these in the cinnamon sugar until completely coated. Place the balls on the baking sheets, spacing them well apart (they will spread as they cook).
Bake for 10-13 minutes, until a light golden colour. Leave for a few moments to set on the baking sheets, then transfer to a wire rack.
{Recipe slightly adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery : Cake Days}
You can find more scrumptious treats to bake in the ‘cake for the weekend’ recipe index.
Oh yum! I will definitely try these!
Oh yum x
What a gorgeous recipe and what lovely memories you have of that time. I’ve copied down the recipe as I love cinnamon and these look simple enough even for me!
I love to make snickerdoodles. They’re easy and good, and you get so many from one batch.
I’ve been looking for something to bake over the weekend (rainy days and baking go hand in hand as far as I’m concerned)… These look lovely and will make a nice change from cake!
S 🙂
I must try these – I love a biscuit I can dunk in my tea. I make a cinnamon biscuit (‘porvolones’ recipe found on the internet) for my Mexican son-in-law – they are delicious but too buttery to be dunked in tea.
These look wonderful, pretty photos! SD
I find cinnamon such a nostalgic smell, it reminds me of being a child and licking the bowl when my Granddad was cooking! Great recipe, have bookmarked to try. Thank goodness for Pinterest!