cookie
A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, n ...
made with
flour
Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many culture ...
, fat,
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
, and
salt
Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...
, and rolled in
cinnamon sugar
Cinnamon sugar is a mixture of ground cinnamon and granulated sugar used as a spice to flavor foods such as Belgian waffles, Snickerdoodle cookies, tortillas, coffee cake, French toast, and churros.
It is also used to flavor apples, cereals, and ...
. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with
cream of tartar
Potassium bitartrate, also known as potassium hydrogen tartrate, with formula K C4 H5 O6, is a byproduct of winemaking. In cooking, it is known as cream of tartar. It is processed from the potassium acid salt of tartaric acid (a carboxylic ac ...
and
baking soda
Sodium bicarbonate (IUPAC name: sodium hydrogencarbonate), commonly known as baking soda or bicarbonate of soda, is a chemical compound with the formula NaHCO3. It is a salt composed of a sodium cation ( Na+) and a bicarbonate anion ( HCO3−) ...
added to leaven the dough. Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be either crisp or soft depending on the ingredients used.
Snickerdoodles are often referred to as "
sugar cookie
A sugar cookie is a cookie with the main ingredients being sugar, flour, butter, eggs, vanilla, and either baking powder or baking soda (depending on the type of sugar used). Sugar cookies may be formed by hand, dropped, or rolled and cut int ...
s". However, traditional sugar cookies are often rolled in white sugar whereas snickerdoodles are rolled in a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon.
Etymology
''
The Joy of Cooking
''Joy of Cooking'', often known as "''The Joy of Cooking''", is one of the United States' most-published cookbooks. It has been in print continuously since 1936 and has sold more than 20 million copies. It was published privately during 1931 by ...
'' claims that snickerdoodles are probably
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word ''Schneckennudel'', a
Palatine
A palatine or palatinus (in Latin; plural ''palatini''; cf. derivative spellings below) is a high-level official attached to imperial or royal courts in Europe since Roman times.
variety of ''
schnecken
Schnecken are a type of sweet bun or roll of German origin.
Today schnecken can be commonly found in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Israel, southern Brazil and the USA.
The name ''Schnecken'' means ''snail
A snail is, in loose te ...
''. It is also possible that the name is simply a nonsense word with no particular meaning, originating from a
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
tradition of whimsical cookie names. The ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a com ...
'' claims the word's origin is "uncertain", and possibly a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordssnicker'', an "imitative" English word with Scottish roots that indicates a "smothered laugh", and ''
doodle
A doodle is a drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be composed of random and abstract lines or shapes, generally without ever lift ...
'', a Germanic
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
into English meaning a "simple or foolish fellow", originally derived from the Germanic ''dudeltopf'', meaning "simpleton, noodle, night-cap". The earliest use of the word recorded by the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' is from 1889.
Ingredients
Snickerdoodles have traditionally been made with a blend of
shortening
Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term ''shortening'' seldom refers to bu ...
and butter. Some updated modern recipes have replaced shortening (a
hydrogenated fat
Fat hydrogenation is the process of combining fat – typically liquid vegetable oils – with hydrogen, to convert some or all of the unsaturated fat into saturated fat, resulting in a solid or semi-solid fat.
Changing the degree of saturation ...
) with different varieties of oil. The cookies are rolled in cinnamon sugar which varies in the intensity of cinnamon flavor with some recipes using a 1:1 ratio of cinnamon to sugar. The process of making it is similar to many other cookies; first the fat and sugar are creamed together until pale and fluffy, then an egg is whisked in, and the flour is added last.
Food trends
The cookie is common to
Mennonite
Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the Radic ...
and
Amish
The Amish (; pdc, Amisch; german: link=no, Amische), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptist Christian church fellowships with Swiss German and Alsatian origins. They are closely related to Mennonite churches ...
communities and was a favorite treat of the
Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
poet,
James Whitcomb Riley
James Whitcomb Riley (October 7, 1849 – July 22, 1916) was an American writer, poet, and best-selling author. During his lifetime he was known as the "Hoosier Poet" and "Children's Poet" for his dialect works and his children's poetry. His ...
.
In more recent times, the snickerdoodle cookie has transformed into a popular flavor of desserts, sweets, drinks, etc. Big brands have taken the simple dessert and turned them into their own original products. For example,
General Mills
General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company orig ...
created a snickerdoodle flavored
Chex Mix
Chex Mix (stylized as Chex mix) is a type of snack mix that includes Chex breakfast cereal (sold by General Mills) as a major component.
There are many recipes (often printed on Chex cereal boxes) for homemade Chex Mix, also known as Chex Party ...
Muddy Buddies to their snack line. During the 2014 holiday season,
Dunkin' Donuts
Dunkin' Donuts LLC, also known as Dunkin' and by the initials DD, is an American multinational coffee and doughnut company, as well as a quick service restaurant. It was founded by Bill Rosenberg (1916–2002) in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 195 ...
unveiled a snickerdoodle cookie
latte
Caffè latte (), often shortened to just latte () in English, is a coffee beverage of Italian origin made with espresso and steamed milk. Variants include the chocolate-flavored mocha or replacing the coffee with another beverage base such as ma ...
on their holiday menu. In addition to a snickerdoodle latte,
Nestlé
Nestlé S.A. (; ; ) is a Switzerland, Swiss multinational food and drink processing conglomerate corporation headquartered in Vevey, Vaud, Switzerland. It is the largest publicly held food company in the world, measured by revenue and other me ...
Coffee-Mate
Coffee-mate is a coffee whitener lactose-free creamer manufactured by Nestlé, available in powdered, liquid and concentrated liquid forms. It was introduced in 1961 by Carnation.
Ingredients
Coffee-mate Original is mostly made up of three i ...
List of cookies
This is a list of notable cookies (American English), also called biscuits (British English). Cookies are typically made with flour, egg, sugar, and some type of shortening such as butter or cooking oil, and baked into a small, flat shape.
Cooki ...
*
Sandies
The sandie, sometimes referred to as sablé, is a type of sugar cookie or shortbread cookie. The pecan sandie is a common variety of the cookie utilizing pecans. The Keebler Company has registered the brand name Sandies, which it uses for a line o ...