Snickerdoodle

 

These are shortbread, not Snickerdoodles!!

It is coming to the end of Australian Masterchef on the telly now, which the household has been watching religiously once it got down to the Top Ten contestants, and became interesting.

The thing about the programme, which I’ve watched sporadically over the years, including a few ‘seasons’ when we had a New Zealand Masterchef, is that it seems to make itself known in the house when we cook.

‘Is this good enough to keep you in the competition?” we ask when a new dish is created. It must then be analysed whereas, pre-Masterchef, a dish was good or it wasn’t. A biscuit was yummy or it was meh.

 (Biscuit meaning cookie.) Now, there is a criteria

Case in point, one of the household made snickerdoodles last night.

I’d heard of snickerdoodles but had no idea what they were. 

They are a cinnamon flavoured biscuit (ie cookie).

“How did they work out?” I asked.

The response was, they were okay. Okay is not all that promising, it seems to me, so I made a cup of coffee (instant decaf), selected a Snickerdoodle and began the taste test.

“Nice cinnamon flavour,” I pronounced as I proceeded to nibble my way through the biscuit.

“The cinnamon is certainly there but not overpowering. Did you use butter?”

“Of course,” came the indignant reply. “I bought some.” (We’d run out so I thought to query this as we only had margarine in the fridge.)

“The butter flavour is there, its lovely and rich. You really notice it.”

More taste testing.

“And they’re fudgey, really good. Not crumbly and not crispy. Really delicious.”

I polished it off and had two more for good measure and pronounced that the Snickerdoodles were far far far better than okay. They were pretty darned fine.

Naturally, the name required investigating, but it appears there is no one reason for the whimsical ‘snickerdooodle.’ Theories abound. That it comes from “Schneckennudel,” a German word. 

That it is just a New England word, as New Englanders liked to give things cutesy names.

Cute name aside, I like the flavour and texture, and think they're a very nice thing.