Iiiits cookie time! It’s the time of year when so many of us bite off more than we can chew. Literally and figuratively. I mean, there are so many cookies to be made this time of year!
In years past, I’ve headed home from the grocery store loaded up with bags of ingredients for no less than eight different types of cookies. And then set out to make all of them inside of one day. Even before I had a kid (and therefore much less leisure time), eight different kinds of cookies were tough to turn out in one day. Let alone one season.
This year, instead of handing out cookie plates with a vast variety of cookies in all shapes and sizes, my labor of love for the season is not quite so laborious. I’m planning to give out mason jars filled with just one delicious variety of cookies: Sparkly Chocolate Snickerdoodles.
Eight of ’em fit perfectly into a wide-mouthed jar. Screw on a jumbo cupcake liner and tie on some kitchen twine and we’re good to go. Who wouldn’t want to receive a jar of chocolate snickerdoodles for Christmas? I’m hoping for no one, because I’ve got a busy week full of mason jars and cinnamon and sugar up my sleeve. Not literally, because that would be uncomfortable and sticky.
Because these cookies are dark, the sugar in the cinnamon-and-sugar coating shimmers and shines. Hence the “sparkly” in the name. Perfect for the season!
Plus, these little suckers are so easy. They’re basically a traditional snickerdoodle recipe with some of the flour swapped out for cocoa powder. Not even “basically” – that’s exactly what they are. I kept everything else the same, down to rolling copiously in cinnamon and sugar before baking.
The result is chewy but a little soft, chocolatey but still clearly snickerdoodles. And crinkly and cracked along the top, just like a good snickerdoodle should be.
Another bonus with these cookies is that they’re great to make with the little ones. My toddler loves forming the dough balls and rolling them in cinnamon and sugar. But they still turn out perfectly round after baking. Win win!
Yup, just one Christmas cookie this year. Simplification is a good thing (and so are Sparkly Chocolate Snickerdoodles).