I don’t like going to parties empty handed. A month ago I received an impromptu pool party invite and did go empty handed, which felt so strange. (No time too cook/bake, nothing adequate to buy.) Last Saturday I went to a house party. As soon as the invitation arrived earlier in the week I put my thinking cap on (more stylish than a chef’s hat, less stylish than a dunce cap). Into my recipe file¹ I went, carefully considering what to make. Guinness cupcakes, David Lebovitz’s cheesecake brownies and vegan brownies were nominees. After contemplation I decided to go with one thing that required the purchase of fewest ingredients (1 ingredient actually, and after buying almond milk – 2 cartons for a sale price – I saw that I already had an unopened carton). What was the fourth, and winning option?

Mexican Hot Chocolate Snickerdoodles from Post Punk Kitchen. PPK is behind such cookbooks as Veganomicon (which I bought in part for the name, and I rarely buy cookbooks² ), Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Vegan Brunch and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Yes, my snickerdoodles were vegan. Shhhh.

What’s a “snickerdoodle”? I had to look it up because as far as I knew, a snickerdoodle is a cookie, so why not just call it a cookie?

Says Wikipedia:

A snickerdoodle is a type of sugar cookie made with cream of tartar and rolled in cinnamon sugar. It is characterized by a cracked surface and can be crisp or soft depending on preference. In modern recipes, the leavening agent is usually baking powder.

If you’re a knowledge nerd like me, and like to know about the origins of a word, here’s what Wikipedia says about the etymology of the word:

The Joy of Cooking claims that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln, which means “snail noodles.” A different author suggests that the word “snicker” comes from the Dutch word snekrad, or the German word Schnecke, which both describe a snail-like shape. Yet another hypothesis suggests that the name has no particular meaning or purpose and is simply a whimsically named cookie that originated from a New England tradition of fanciful cookie names. There is also a series of tall tales about a hero named “Snickerdoodle” from the early 1900s which may be related to the name of the cookie.

Mexican hot chocolate snickerdoodles are so called because of chocolate (obviously), cinnamon and cayenne. That half teaspoon of cayenne packs a punch, and I think that I’ve been using the same cayenne powder for years.

People on Twitter were curious about my cookies. They were a HIT at the party. People at work liked them.  The recipe was requested by a number of people.

I mostly stuck to the recipe with only two modifications. I already know what the mods are for the next round.

Enough of my babbling. You want the recipe, don’t you? (This is a call and response blog, didn’t you know?) Here it is:

Makes 2 dozen (I made some smaller to maximize the number)

For the topping:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

For the cookies:
1/2 cup canola oil (I used 1/4 cup sunflower oil and 1/4 melted coconut oil, would have used all coconut but didn’t want to use up the jar)
1 cup sugar (I used raw cane sugar)
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons almond milk (Or your preferred non-dairy milk)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon chocolate extract (or more vanilla extract if you have no chocolate)
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix the topping ingredients together on a flat plate. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, use a fork to vigorously mix together oil, sugar, syrup, and milk. Mix in extracts.

Sift in remaining ingredients, stirring as you add them. Once all ingredients are added mix until you’ve got a pliable dough.

Roll dough into walnut sized balls. Pat into the sugar topping to flatten into roughly 2 inch discs. Transfer to baking sheet, sugar side up, at least 2 inches apart (they do spread). This should be easy as the the bottom of the cookies should just stick to your fingers so you can just flip them over onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, they should be a bit spread and crackly on top. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

**

See PPK for a video of Isa Moskowitz making them as well as Isa’s own intro. If anyone can make these gluten free, try it and send me the recipe. I’ve been meaning to buy the ingredients to make my own gluten free flour blend. The next time I make these I want to dial down the cayenne, as that was the dominating flavour for me, and add some ginger.

There you have it.

Footnotes:

¹ As I’ve said before, my “recipe file” is Google Bookmarks. A couple of years ago I did away with a huge, heavy binder of recipes, a combination of old newspaper photocopies, magazine clippings and website print outs. Despite the occasional purge it was unwieldy, arranged with dividers by topic, but no recipe index, and no way to have recipes included in multiple sections or pages with multiple recipes to span multiple sections without printing out more than one copy. It was an inefficient mess. By the time I got rid of this recipe collection method I had a second binder just for desserts, beverages and holiday recipes. The multi-month project involved seeking out recipes that I’d printed out and bookmarking them. It was worth the time and effort. Folksonomy is important when it comes to finding what you’re looking for and the ability to attach multiple tags/labels and easily search makes it a great recipe filing tool.
² See footnote 1.

Eat well, be well.