Snickerdoodle Cookies - Dairy Free or Lactose Free
Snickerdoodles are one of our family's favorite cookies. When we became lactose intolerant we had to give up many of our favorite desserts, including cookies made with butter. Since then we have been searching for how to create a delicious cookie and still feel good after eating it (no more tootles from the 'doodles!). For this recipe we decided to experiment with lactose free butter and dairy free margarine.
Snickerdoodle taste test - dairy free on the left and lactose free butter on the right.
Taste Test Kitchen (we’ll experiment so you don’t have to)
The Snickerdoodle challenge is on.
We set out to bake a cookie with that distinctive Snickerdoodle flavor and chewy-crispy texture. We finally found a butter we could try. Last fall, we got excited when we found a lactose free butter made by Green Valley Organics at our local store. So for this taste test, we decided to put that butter up against the Earth Balance vegan butter sticks we’ve come to depend on for dairy-free baking. The Earth Balance baking sticks work really well although they lack the flavor of butter and lasting texture it gives to cookies.
We added shortening to the vegan margarine, which helps give the desired crisp outside and height to the cookie. In fact, substituting half the fat for shortening made for a taller cookie than the butter-only version.
Right out of the oven, the taste was about the same. The margarine-shortening cookies were crisp on the outside and chewy-tender on the inside. The butter cookies spread more and so had less of a chewy inside but still had a good combination of crispy and chewy.
After cooling a few hours, the margarine-shortening ones lost some of their inner chewiness and were almost too firm. The butter cookies held a nice chewy texture with crispy outside, and the butter flavor stood out.
Overall, the results were so close but the lactose-free butter Snickerdoodles held up better over the next couple of days. Either way, you'll find they won’t last long.
The lactose-free butter Snickerdoodles (left) spread more than the vegan margarine and shortening ones (right).
- For dairy free* cookies, use margarine and shortening:
- 1/2 cup dairy free margarine
- 1/2 cup shortening For lactose free* cookies, use lactose free butter:
- 1 cup lactose free butter
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 eggs
- 2 3/4 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon** salt
- Coating:
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
