Cornflakes Snickerdoodle Cookies @staceyballis @LucyBurdette

LUCY BURDETTE: I know many of you read our foodie mysteries, but have you ever actually made a recipe from the back of a novel? The first one I can remember making came from a Diane Mott Davidson mystery, a recipe for stuffed manicotti. Since then, the more writers I’ve gotten to know, and the more foodie books I’ve written myself, the more recipes I’ve tried. This one came from Stacey Ballis's novel, How to Change a Life. The title of the recipe captured me instantly. I love cornflakes, and I love snickerdoodles so I had to try it! I followed her recipe, except for reducing the salt by half a teaspoon, and also reducing the cinnamon from 1 tablespoon to 2 teaspoons. I do like cinnamon, but that seemed like a lot. All the friends who tried these liked them very much--they are crunchy rather than soft like other snickerdoodles.

*Make sure to leave time to chill the dough before you bake it.

Ingredients:

Two sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

One and 1/2 cup sugar

One egg, room temperature

One and 1/3 cups flour

1/4 cup fine corn flour

2/3 cup cornflake powder (see instructions below)

Three-quarter teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon kosher salt




For the topping:

One cup crushed cornflakes

2 tablespoons granulated sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon




To make the cornflake flour, whirl about 2 cups of cornflakes in your food processor until fairly fine. Measure out 2/3 cup and set aside.

Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. And the egg and beat for seven or eight minutes until smooth.

On low speed, add the flour, corn flour, cornflake powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and beat briefly until the dough just comes together.

To the crushed cornflakes (made by rolling or crushing the flakes in a plastic bag), add the sugar and cinnamon. Prepare two baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a cookie scoop if you have one, scoop out balls of dough, and roll them in the cornflake mixture. Set these on the cooking sheets. You should have about two dozen. Press lightly on them to flatten.

Refrigerate for two hours or more in order to prevent the dough from spreading.

Bake the cookies for 18 minutes at 350. Cool on the baking sheets and serve. (T-bone hopes you enjoyed his photo bombs...)

Lucy Burdette writes the Key West food critic mystery series including USA Today bestselling A CLUE IN THE CRUMBS. You can order that wherever books are sold. If you’re all caught up, try Lucy’s first women’s fiction title, THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS.

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