Snickerdoodle Bars

Just so you know, this month I plan to kill you with sweetness.

You'll notice that even with the veritable deluge of cookies on this blog, even with my clear obsession with cookies, even with my clear and unhealthy addiction to all things cookie, you cannot find a recipe for a snickerdoodle among its virtual pages (though you will find this fantastic Lemon Doodle, which you should make and love with your immortal soul). That is because, until now, I hadn't found a snickerdoodle recipe that I really truly super loved. Oh, the ones I tried were all fine; I would eat them and stuff. But most were a tad bit ho-hum; they weren't great enough to make the cut for this blog. And you see, I'm super picky with snickerdoodles. Because Kip doesn't much like them. Which means that when I make them, I'm going to get "stuck" eating the bulk of them. And I only want to do that with a recipe I truly super amazingly awesomely love. Guess what? I found it.

These bars were everything a snickerdoodle should be--crisp cinnamon sugar crunch between your teeth on the outside, delicate buttery almost ooey gooey middle, pop of cinnamon, depth of vanilla, butter baby. The texture was fantastic, the flavor was deep and perfect. Aaaaaand, how about not having to roll 50 tiny balls into the sugar cinnamon mixture. My lazy cook self can totally get on board with that. Especially when the end product is so mouth-meltingly other-worldly as this.

Snickerdoodle Bars
adapted from Baked by Rachel
Makes 1 9x13 inch pan
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 25-30 minutes
Cost: $2.75 (or about $.11/bar--take that Starbucks)
butter: 1.25, sugar: .20, brown sugar: .40, eggs: .20, flour: .35, spices and vanilla: .20, topping stuff: .15

1 C butter, softened
1 C granulated sugar
1 C brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 1/2 C all purpose flour

Topping:
1/4 C granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. You can line your 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper--in a way that makes removal easier, but it also slips around when you put the thick batter in so you might just want to grease your pan well instead.

In a large bowl, cream butters and sugars. Then add eggs and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients and mix until fully incorporated (but don't mix the poor cookies to death.

Spread it out in the pan (it will be thick and fabulous). (You can grease your hands and press it in if this makes life easier.) Mix up the topping ingredients and sprinkle that over the top. Don't be stingy now--add it all on; you won't regret it (unless you're dieting; then you'll regret it, but if you're dieting, seriously--just skip making this all together, okay).

Bake 25-30 minutes or until you can stick a fork in and have it come out clean or with moist crumbs.

You can serve warmish or cool. They're seriously fabulous either way.

PRINTABLE RECIPE