A New Snickerdoodle

I created a new cookie last night, or rather, a variation on an old favorite. I was sniffing around in my spice cupboard last week, and noticed that coriander has a very lemony scent to it. It's got a subtle, earthy spiciness that I sensed immediately would go incredibly well with lemon. It's been rattling around my brain for long enough that last night I had no choice but to try my hands at it.

I didn't know what kind of cookie I wanted to try and come up with, and so I pulled out my trusty companion when I want to reinvent the wheel: Cookwise, by Shirley O. Corriher. Her book goes into the whys and hows in ways that no other cookbook has done. I looked through the section on cookie making, trying to figure out the kind of recipe that I wanted to use to create this new cookie. Then the thought dawned on me that it would be an easy thing to simply adapt a tried and true recipe and make it new with a completely different character. I thought through all the types of cookies I like, and thought about sugar cookies, which often are already lemon flavored. Then I thought about Snickerdoodles and knew that I'd arrived at the right cookie. There's a built in tartness to Snickerdoodles already with the use of cream of tartar which I knew would compliment the cookie well. It's all about the alchemy of flavors, and I knew that when I combined coriander, lemon and the tartness of cream of tartar, I'd have a winner.

This cookie is amazingly tasty. It's a lemon cookie with an adult sensibility. I highly recommend trying it. Find your favorite Snickerdoodle recipe, then add to the creamed egg and sugar 1 1/2 tsp lemon extract, or about the same amount of lemon zest. To the dried ingredients, add 1 1/2 tsp of coriander, and bake how you normally would, but instead of using cinnamon sugar to roll the cookies in, use a 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 1/2 to 2 tsp of coriander.

Very, very tasty!