Bariatric Foodie Play with your food
This cookie recipe is a part of the 2018 Bariatric Foodie No-Flour, Sugar-Free Cookie Collection, sponsored by Sola. Click here to get back to the full collection!
Indulge me a soapbox moment.
Nothing gets my yoga pants in a bunch like when I look at a snickerdoodle recipe and it is missing THE one ingredient that makes a snickerdoodle a snickerdoodle.
Do you know what it is? Do you?
Cream. Of. Tartar!!!
Argue me down on this if you want, but a cookie that calls itself a snickerdoodle that doesn’t have cream of tartar is a sugar cookie…trying to be something it’s not.
And, really, sugar cookies are respectable cookies. They are a bit…pedestrian…in my opinion…but still. They are a stand-up cookie in every sense of the word. But a sugar cookie is not a snickerdoodle, Foodies. If you remember nothing else I say in this cookie collection, remember that!
That being said…let’s get into this cookie!
The Fat
Like with the Gingerbread Cookie, I went traditional on the fat. In fact, nearly everything about this recipe is in keeping with the way I’ve made snickerdoodles since before snicker met doodle.
All that is to say, I used butter, folks. But you cook your conscience! If you don’t want to use butter, you can also use something like Blue Bonnet Light baking sticks, I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter baking sticks or any other solid baking stick. I would not recommend using something that is liquid. That’s going to throw off the texture of your cookie.
The Flavor
Snickerdoodles really only rely on three things for flavor in the first place:
- Butter: A good snickerdoodle has a smooth, buttery taste.
- Sugar: The cookies themselves aren’t overly sweet, but most people roll the dough in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon before baking.
- Cream of Tartar: I’ll refrain from ranting about this again, but cream of tartar gives the cookie that distinctive “snappy” taste that differentiates it from a sugar cookie.
So we’ve already established I went with butter as the fat, so we have that flavor there. For sugar, of course, I used Sola (click here to read my product review…but then come back!), which works out really well because it’s granulated much like sugar so the texture is really nice when you roll them. Just don’t overdo it. Sola is not sugar. So, like most every sugar substitute, it has a slight aftertaste that can be cloying if you use too much of it. (Speaking from experience!)
For the cream of tartar, it took me a few tries to get the proportions right. Too much cream of tartar makes your tongue feel funny. (That’s the best way I can describe it.) So stick to what I have in the recipe below!
The Texture
By the time I got around to the snickerdoodle recipe, I had stumbled upon my base recipe for all the cookies, which made life a LOT easier. This base recipe was such a blessing. It yielded cookie dough that was actually dough (and not like cake batter), which firms up nicely after refrigeration, making it easy to roll into balls (or scoop, as I did) and toss it in a mixture of Sola and cinnamon to line up and bake. (Wow…that was a really long sentence.)
Tips
Not really any, actually! This is a pretty easy and reliable cookie. I’ll say it again, though. Don’t go too bonkers on the rolling in the Sola and cinnamon. Just a light tossing is enough!
Also, I put a range for that amount of sweetener to go in the dough. If you like very lightly sweetened cookie, go with the lower end. I like a very sweet cookie, go with the higher! But just remember that you are going to be rolling it in more sweetener before baking it.
I was also concerned about whether or not this would “read” like a snickerdoodle to someone who does mostly sugar-free, like me, so I asked La Petite Diva to take a taste. She said she liked the cookies but something about them was different from a snickerdoodle.
When I told her they were made with Sola, she remembered when I did the review two years ago, and admitted it was probably that. It’s not so much an aftertaste as the stuff has an interesting “cooling” sensation on the finish. It’s like mint…without the mint taste. But other than that, she said it was a stand-up cookie. I think it tastes like a sugar-free snickerdoodle. 😉
Want all the cookies?
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- 1 c. almond flour (plus one additional tablespoon)
- 1/4 tsp. baking powder
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 stick unsalted butter melted
- 2-4 tbsp. Sola granular (or your favorite sweetener, equivalent to 2 tbsp. sugar)
- 1/2 large egg (or 2 tbsp. Egg Beaters)
- 1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a bowl, mix together almond flour, baking powder, salt and cream of tartar. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix butter and sweetener until fully combined, before adding egg and vanilla. Combine wet and dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, being careful to work out any lumps in the almond flour.
- Consistency should be of a soft cookie dough. If it's more like cake batter, add another tablespoon of almond flour and mix, before refrigerating for 30 minutes.
- Combine additional sweetener with cinnamon in a large cup or bowl. Drop heaps of dough into the mixture and coat lightly.
- Arrange dough in two rows on your cookie sheet, and flatten into a disc with a spoon.
- Bake for 12 minutes, then remove from oven and allow cookies to cool on the cookie sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Can this recipe be used for a blind backed pie crust and do you have any ideas from a sugar free pecan pie?
Hi there,
I’m not sure it would work well as a pie crust. Pie crust recipes and cookie recipes are very different in how the ingredients work together to produce a final result. I’d say this could probably be used as a base for a cheesecake, however, this is a smaller batch recipe so you may need to make adjustments to have enough to do what you need to do.
I personally don’t like pecan pie so I’ve never made a regular OR sugar-free version, but I’m thinking the internet HAS to have something for you! Search for one, and if you find anything good, let me know!
I wonder if I could make this without the cream of tartar? That’s the only ingredient I don’t have.
You could but then they wouldn’t be snickerdoodles. They’d be sugar cookies. Which is fine! But snickerdoodles have cream of tartar.
Have you ever used monk fruit in the raw as a sweetener? I’m wondering if it works well for bariatric folks.
I don’t care for monkfruit so I haven’t used it much. You should give it a try though! Just be sure you know your conversion! I use Splenda which measures 1:1 with sugar. So if you use my recipe, you can look up use the same measurement I do for Splenda to convert. I hope that made sense!
what is the purpose for cream of tartar