Snickerdoodle Bars

 

  GoodMan looooooves Snickerdoodles...I like them too...but not nearly as much as GoodMan. Luckily for him, a group at our church makes homemade cookies every week for people to have with coffee while chatting between services. About once every 4 weeks or so the Sunday morning cookie flavor is Snickerdoodle. GoodMan usually restrains himself and has only one cookie on a Sunday morning, but on Snickerdoodle Sunday it's hard to keep him out of there!
  I've made Snickerdoodles more often than I care to admit, but it never occurred to me to make them into a bar cookie. I saw someone post Snickerdoodle Bars on Pinterest and I slapped my forehead with a "duh!" That looked so much easier than making individual cookies. I get tired of rolling the dough in balls and then rolling the balls in a cinnamon sugar mixture (I really just get bored).  I followed the Pinterest link to the Betty Crocker website and after reading their recipe I realized I could adapt their recipe and my Snickerdoodle cookie recipe and come up with a Snickerdoodle bar that would make GoodMan very happy. Let me show you how I did it.

I gathered the ingredients; butter, white sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, all-purpose flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Then I remembered the ingredient that I think makes it a Snickerdoodle ~ cream of tartar.

 I creamed the butter and the sugars, then added the eggs and vanilla.

I mixed the flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar together in another container, and then I slowly incorporated the dry ingredients into the egg mixture and mixed them together until just combined.

At this point I preheated my oven to 350 degrees and prepared a 9x13 pan by spraying it with PAM. Then I took half of the dough and patted it down into the pan. I found it was easier if I got my hands wet first ~ not dripping, but wet.

Then I mixed two tablespoons of granulated sugar and one tablespoon of cinnamon in a small bowl.

I sprinkled the cinnamon sugar mixture over the dough in the pan. I didn't need to use all of the sugar mixture, so I saved a couple of teaspoons out to use in the glaze. Then I spooned the remaining dough over the top in "dollops". When all the remaining dough was on top, I put it in the oven and baked it for 28 minutes (I started checking on it at 22 minutes ~ I felt it was done when the edges were golden brown and the center didn't look wet.)

This is how it looked when I pulled it out of the oven. I let it cool on the counter top...and GoodMan's nose drew him in to check out what I was cooking. I convinced him to wait until after dinner...just barely...

When I cut the bars I drizzled them with a mixture of powdered sugar, the remaining cinnamon sugar mixture, and milk...and then I brought one to GoodMan, because treating him to something special was the whole point!


This is my official recipe for Snickerdoodle Bars
(adapted from Betty Crocker's recipe)


Dough:
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Filling:
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
remainder of cinnamon sugar mixture
approximately 2 tablespoons milk (to get glazing consistency)
pinch of salt


Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare 9x13 pan by spraying with PAM.
In large mixing bowl, beat butter and sugars until creamed. Add vanilla and eggs. Mix until all ingredients are combined.
In a medium size bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt. 
Add dry mixture to wet mixture a little at a time and mix just to combine.
Pat half of the dough into the pan.
In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon for the filling. Sprinkle over the dough in the pan to cover completely. Reserve about 1 teaspoon of the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Dollop the remaining dough over the top of the mixture by teaspoons until all dough is used.
Bake for 22-30 minutes until sides are golden brown and center doesn't look wet.
Cool Completely.
In a small bowl, mix all glaze ingredients until smooth.
Drizzle glaze over the cooled bars. Cut into pieces and serve.


What was the taste tester's bottom line?
GoodMan LOVED them! He says they're better than any brownie he's ever eaten!! I liked them too. They remind me of a Cinnabon roll. We took some to the neighbors across the street so we didn't eat the whole pan by ourselves!


The bottom line:  I'll add this recipe to my "Snickerdoodle's For GoodMan" collection.