Preparations

• Take your eggs out of the fridge, so they can come to room temperature. Though, if you forget (as I often do) simply add it to the still slightly warm butter, to help you cool it down.
• Get all your ingredients ready. I love measuring them out in advance, so I can just throw them together, looking all organised when making the cookies. Plus I’m very prone to forgetting something. So having it all lined up helps me make sure I got it all.

Brown Your Butter

• In a saucepan, melt your butter over medium high heat. It will splatter and bubble wildly.
• The moment you hear the sound changing and the bubbles look smaller, turn down the heat to medium low and start stirring with your spatula, scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pan. This is the good stuff, you don’t want it to burn!
• Let it brown for just a minute or so, until it smells lovely nutty and has a deep amber color. Depending on your hob this can be very quickly! In doubt stop earlier rather than burning it.
• Transfer to your heat proof bowl. Allow to cool in the fridge for about 30 minutes or until the sides are starting to solidify, but the center is still liquid.
• At this point whisk and integrate all the lovely brown bits from the bottom back in, until you have a creamy mass.
• Don’t be tempted to use the butter in liquid form. It won’t get fluffy when mixing with the sugar and your cookies might come out flat and greasy instead of puffy and chewy.

Whisk Butter and Sugar

• Using either your whisk or the paddle attachment of your stand mixer, start whisking butter and sugar until fluffy and pale. This incorporates a lot of air into the dough, helping with the characteristic puffy appearance of the Snickerdoodles.

Add Wet Ingredients and Protein Powder

• Now mix in the eggs one by one, the honey, and the vanilla, until fully incorporated and creamy.
• Add the protein powder and sourdough discard and mix again until smooth. While you could add the protein powder to the flour, I always feel it dissolves better when added with the wet ingredients.

Mix in The Dry Ingredients

• Now come the flour, baking soda, salt and cream of tartar. Give them a brief mix while on top of the batter, so all is evenly distributed throughout the dough.
• Gently stir it in until just combined. Only until no dry streaks are left. Don’t overmix.

Shape and Roll The Snickerdoodles in Cinnamon Sugar

• Line two sheet pans with parchment.
• Mix your cinnamon and sugar in a flat bowl or plate until well combined.
• Start by portioning out your cookies. About two tablespoons cookie dough for each. Or one medium cookie scoop. Pop them all beside each other on the sheet pan. Don’t worry about distance for now. We’ll arrange them later.
• Now, I like to pop these in the fridge for about 30 minutes to 1 hour, so they can firm up a little and be easier to roll. You can absolutely do it right away, it’s just a little messier, doughy hands and all.
• If they are cool, you can easily shape them into neat balls, then roll in the cinnamon sugar. I like to roll them twice, for good measure.
• If you decided you want your cookies right now, soft or not, pop each soft doughy portion into the cinnamon sugar right from the scoop, use your hands to push sugar over them and then roll. That way you have a bit less of a sticky mess on your hands.
• At this point you could also freeze your cookies, to bake a fresh batch whenever the mood strikes.

Bake your Protein Snickerdoodles with Sourdough Discard

• Preheat your oven to 350°F/175°C.
• Iine a second sheet pan with baking parchment. (We’ll need to bake in 3-4 batches but can re-use the parchment)
• Arrange your cookies a few inches apart, so you have about 6 evenly spaced ones on each sheet pan.
• Bake for 10-14 minutes, rotating the tray once at around 6 minutes, as most ovens bake unevenly.
• If the tops are a bit cracked, but the dough underneath looks matte (slightly dry, not shiny and wet) and the edges are starting to just get golden, take them out.
• The trick here is, to have them still slightly underbaked in the center. The puffed up middle will collapse into these gentle waves (not as much as Chocolate chip cookies mind you!), leading to the typical chewiness.
• Allow them to cool on the sheet pan while you bake the next portion. Transfer to a cooling rack after about 5-10 minutes, using a spatula.
• Enjoy while still slightly warm with a glass of cold milk (Almond milk works really well with these!)