Five Spice Snickerdoodles
You know what? Before I
got sucked into the fast-paced and capturing world of food blogs, I
have never heard of the miraculous concoction that is five spice
powder. Then I read about it on several blogs, featured in both sweet
and savory dishes. I was intrigued, yes, but never imagined ever
getting my hands on it because I thought I would not be able to get
where I live. I was wrong.
One day I was just sort of
meandering through my go-to self-proclaimed 'international' shop –
and with 'international' they mean mostly Asian and Oriental food
with a bit of African thrown in – when I found a semi-transparent
little plastic bag tightly stuffed between a plethora of other
semi-transparent plastic bags filled with spices. This one, however
had the unexpected printed on it in bold black letters on a baby blue
background: 5 Spice. Jackpot.
Curiously, I sniffed the
package – quickly checking whether anybody else is in sight
because, you know, I don't want to be the weird person sniffing stuff
in public except fruits maybe – and fell in love with what I was
smelling. Usually, five spice powder consists of a combination of
cinnamon, fennel seeds, star anise, sichuan pepper and ginger, each
representing one element of the five element theory (Wu Xing).
Probably one of the most
famous dishes it is used in is peking duck.
So, as I have never
used this spice mix before, I wanted to try something basic with the
powder providing most of the flavour. I found this amazing quick
recipe over at Dispatches
From Whitcomb Street for snickerdoodles. Can it get more basic
than that? I don't think so.
They turned out amazing. Crispy and
airy on the outside but nice and chewy in the centre. Scrumptious.
My family liked them so much that I had
to make them again two days later.
Five Spice Snickerdoodles
Adapted from here.
- 1 cup (225g) of butter
- 1.5 cups (340g) of sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2.75 (345g) cups flour
- 2 ts of baking powder
- 1/2 ts salt
- 1/2 ts five spice powder
- Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Beat in eggs.
- Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and five spice and fold into wet ingredients until just incorporated.
- Roll dough into 1'' (about 2,5 cm) balls and roll in a mixture of sugar and five spice powder (the original recipe said 3 tbsp of each was enough but I almost used 6 tbsp of each)
- Put on lined or greased baking sheets at least 2'' (5cm) apart and bake at 400°F (about 200°C) for 8-10 minutes.
Enjoy!
