Mouth-Watering Snickerdoodles

Everyone loves a good snickerdoodle every once and a while. Between the crunch of the outside to the soft, chewy center, what isn't there to like? The hardest part about these cookies is to find a good recipe. Sometimes the cookies are too dry, other times it takes so long to make the cookie that it is hardly worth the effort. This recipe, however, has been used in my family for years, and it always comes out perfect. It is by far the simplest cookie recipe I have ever made, but the cookies still have great quality!

Ingredients for the Cookies:

There are only five ingredients for these cookies, and we always have them on hand in my house:

• Butter Yellow or Classic Yellow Cake Mix

• 2 Eggs

• 1/2 Cup of Canola Oil

• 2 to 4 teaspoons of Cinnamon

• 1/2 to 1 cup of Sugar

NOTE: Instead of using chicken eggs, I used duck eggs for this recipe. The recipe will work with chicken or duck eggs, but duck eggs have a tendency to give baked goods a richer flavor, so I typically use them in my baked goods. Since duck egg yolks are almost twice the size of a chicken egg yolk, my dough was thinner than it would be if I had used chicken eggs. This is an advantage for this recipe because you want the center to sink down after you remove it from the oven and you want the edge to be crisper. By having a thinner dough, the cookie spread more in the oven, so it was thinner on the edges. If you decide to use chicken eggs, your dough will be thicker and will not spread out as much in the oven. The cookies will still taste delicious, but they will not have the same crisp on the outer edge and chew in the center.

Supplies and Tools:

• Cookie Sheet(s)

• Liquid Measuring Cup

• Spatula

• 2 Small Bowls

• 1 Large Bowl

• Parchment Paper - Optional

First things first, wash your eggs. Whether your eggs are store-bought or from your farm, all eggs should be washed before they are cracked. Any bacteria or germs on the egg shell could get into your baked goods if you do not wash them off with soap and warm water.

Take one of the two small bowls and crack one of the eggs into the bowl. Check to ensure there is no shell in the bowl. If there is shell, use a fork or your finger to take it out. As long as there is no shell in the egg, pour it into the large bowl. Repeat this process with the other egg. (By cracking the eggs one at a time, you prevent both eggs being contaminated if one is no good.)

Pour 1/2 cup of oil into the measuring cup. Make sure you do not have more than a half cup because that will drastically change the consistency of the dough.

Combine the eggs and the oil in the large bowl, but do not beat the eggs. The goal of this is to simply break the egg yolk, not whisk the mixture. If the eggs are beat for too long, the cookies will be tough instead of the desired chewy consistency.

This is the step that I enjoy the most. Take the cake mix out of the box and rip or cut it open (if you decide to rip it open, just be careful not to spill all over your work surface because it will go everywhere). Add the entire cake mix to the large bowl and begin mixing. Mix until it is fully combined, about two or three minutes. The dough should be firm but sticky. If you used duck eggs, the dough will be less firm and more sticky. If you used chicken eggs, the dough will be less sticky and more firm.

Take the parchment paper - if you decided to use it - and rip off a piece that fits the pan completely. If you did not choose to use it there is no need to grease the pan as long as you are using a non-stick. (These cookies work well with or without the parchment paper on the pan. Although I like using parchment paper because it makes for an easier clean up, I made half of these cookies without the parchment and they turned out fine.)

Preheat the oven 325 degrees right after you put the parchment on the pan. By having the temperature at 325 degrees instead of 350 degrees (the typical temperature for cookies), you prevent the bottoms of the cookies from getting extremely crisp and brown. Instead, the bottoms are a light golden and soft when the cookies are finished.

Take out the second, small bowl that you did not use while making the cookies and add about a half cup of sugar. Then, add about two teaspoons of cinnamon to the sugar. If you need more of this mixture later, you can certainly make more. It all depends on how extensively you coat your cookies in the cinnamon and sugar.

I found, since the dough is sticky, that the best way to scoop the dough was to use my hands. I roughly shaped the dough into half-inch balls and dropped them into the cinnamon and sugar. Unlike most cookies, these snicker-doodles cannot be dropped into the cinnamon and sugar to coat the outside. To cover your cookie dough, you must roll the cookies thoroughly in the cinnamon and sugar.

Once you have the balls covered, carefully flatten them out to one-inch disks. Place the dough onto your pan about a half-inch apart.

Immediately place your pans in the oven and set a timer for twelve (12) minutes. At about four minutes, they should begin to look puffy. The tops will start to crisp, and the edges will start to brown slightly. Towards the end of the twelve minutes, the cookies will have a beautiful texture, and should begin to sink. If they do not sink in the oven, do not worry. When you take them out of the oven and place them on the counter, they will sink down.

Remove the cookies from the oven when the bottoms are a light golden color. The edge of the cookie should be firm to the touch.

Once the cookies are done cooking, they need to cool. I chose to cool my cookies on a cooling rack, but they can cool on the pan. If you did not use parchment paper, let the cookies cool on the pan for at least five minutes before trying to remove them from the pan. Since the cookies are not in the oven long enough to let bottoms turn dark brown, they will not burn if they cool on the pan.

All in all, these cookies are truly amazing. Never do I tire of their rich flavor. They take very little effort but are great for parties, gatherings, or midnight snacks!

I hope you enjoy your well-deserved snack! Do not forget to vote for this project in the Baking Speed Challenge and post pictures of your cookies in the "I Made It!" section.