So, this past Sunday, I hosted our annual family Cookie Baking party.
I spent the afternoon with my mom, daughters, aunt, and cousins covered in flour and all of us up to our eyeballs in sugar, butter and frosting. I had my happy Holiday Baking Playlist going in the background while we baked…and baked…and baked the afternoon away.
This year, my oldest daughter, Clara, and I decided to get a little crazy and come up with a signature holiday cookie. Since she LOVES Snickerdoodles and is a professional at whipping them out with perfection, we decided to start with our favorite Snickerdoodle recipe as our cookie base. To make them a little more special and "signature worthy" we added a streusel topping for some extra crunch and fun holiday flair! *wink*
We call these STREUSELDOODLES!!
Clara came up with the clever catchy name too - she's nothing short of brilliant!
I thought you might like the recipe so here it is…
just in case you are looking for something a little fun and different to make for your neighbors, mail carriers, teachers, office staff, etc.
STRUESELDOODLES
Makes 4-5 dozen
Struesel Topping
1 TBSP. Sugar
2/3 cups pecans, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 TBSP. unsalted butter, melted
Mix sugar, pecans and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon in bowl.
Stir in melted butter. Set aside.
Cookies
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 TBSP. sugar + 2 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350º.
Beat sugar and butter together in large bowl until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and eggs - mix until well blended.
Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt, mixing well.
In small bowl, combine 2 TBSP. of sugar + 2 tsp. cinnamon, stirring until completely blended.
Shape cookie dough into 1" balls.
Roll in cinnamon/sugar mixture and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
Using your thumb, press down in the center of each cookie ball to create a well.
Spoon in about 1 tsp. of the Streusel topping and press down lightly.
Bake at 350º for 10 - 14 minutes - or until a light golden brown finish.
Remove immediately from oven and cool on wire racks.
TIP:
These cookies are meant to be eaten when they are soft so I recommend baking and gifting them the same day for best results!! OR…you can try adding a couple of slices of bread to the airtight container or ziploc bag you are storing them in so as to maintain moisture.
And here we all are!!
I love the flour on Clara's sleeve with all of us crazies in the background!
We had a total of 8 bakers in the kitchen this year and I just
LOVE the selfie group shot Clara got of all of us.
Thanks for the photo AND the Strueseldoodle cookie idea Clara!!
And thanks to all of my family for actually showing up every year!! *wink*
And would you look at all of the cookies we made!!
KEEPiNG iT REAL
Clara and I had much grander plans for these cookies originally.
Not only were we going to add the streusel to the top…
we were also going to make a cinnamon cream cheese frosting and create sandwich cookies out of these. The top cookies would've had the streusel and then we were going to add a small drizzle of white royal icing for presentation. (and packaging)
BUT…after sampling the cookies with just the streusel we knixed the frosting idea altogether.
It would've been too much. The simplicity of the snickerdoodle + streusel topping was perfect all on its own. Simple is always better. Right?
Also…it HAS to be mentioned that our first batch of Snickerdoodles we attempted to make the night before were a #cookiefail -
THEN
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