I love snickerdoodles more than any other cookie. I also generally believe they shouldn’t be tinkered with. And yet today I altered the sacred family recipe — my Grandma’s. Her snickerdoodles were the cookies that brightened my angsty teen years: simple, barely sweet butter-and-sugar cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar and baked until puffed, crisp on the outside and tender inside. Life was always a little better when there was a plate of them.
Recently I’ve been experimenting with skillet cookies. After trying chocolate chip skillet cookies, I wondered why not take a snickerdoodle dough and bake it in a cast-iron skillet. So I melted tradition into a pan and made a Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie. It’s different from Grandma’s, but wonderful in its own right.
Why bake the dough in a skillet instead of forming individual cookies? Because it’s quick and easy: one pan, one bake, less fuss. The result is a single, large, deep-dish cookie with a higher ratio of caramelization on the bottom. If you bake it for the shorter time in the range, the center remains chewy and moist; bake longer and the crisp caramelized layer rises higher. Adjust the bake time to suit whether you prefer a soft, gooey center or more crunch.
Make sure you do bake it — odds are you already have the ingredients in your pantry and refrigerator. In about an hour you can have a warm wedge topped with melting vanilla ice cream and be settled on the couch with dessert in hand before your evening is fully underway. It’s a cozy, satisfying treat, and I suspect Grandma would nod her approval.
My ice cream was on its way home in my husband’s car as I typed this.
Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie
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Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks / 8 ounces) butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 1/2 cups (10 1/2 ounces by weight) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 3/4 cups (11 3/4 ounces by weight) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
In a mid-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, cream the butter, sugar and eggs until smooth and lighter in color. Add the flour mixture and mix until fully combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Grease a cast-iron or other oven-safe skillet with a small amount of butter. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon-sugar mixture across the bottom of the skillet. Scrape the chilled dough into the pan, moisten your hands with water, and press the dough evenly to cover the bottom of the skillet. Sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar evenly over the top.
Bake 30–45 minutes. When the edges are browned and the center is golden, remove the skillet from the oven. At the shorter bake time the center will be very moist; for a crisper cookie keep it closer to 45 minutes. Transfer the pan to a wire rack and cool 20 minutes before slicing into wedges. Serve slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for best results.
Deep Dish Snickerdoodle Skillet Cookie
Rebecca Lindamood
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter 2 sticks / 8 ounces, softened
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar 10 1/2 ounces by weight
- 2 large eggs
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 11 3/4 ounces by weight
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar mixed with ground cinnamon plus 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
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Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
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Cream the butter, sugar and eggs together until smooth and lighter in color. Add the flour mixture and mix until combined. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
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Preheat the oven to 350°F.
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Grease a cast-iron or other oven-safe skillet with a little butter. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon-sugar mixture over the bottom. Press the dough evenly into the skillet, then sprinkle the remaining cinnamon-sugar on top. Bake 30–45 minutes, until edges are browned and center is golden. For a very moist center remove closer to 30 minutes; for a crisper cookie bake toward 45 minutes. Cool the skillet on a wire rack 20 minutes before slicing. Serve slightly warm, ideally with melting vanilla ice cream.
Nutritional information is an estimate and provided as a courtesy. Calculate nutrition using the exact ingredients you use.
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