This recipe originally started as a snickerdoodle cookie recipe where the traditional all purpose flour is swapped for healthy, whole grain soft white wheat flour e.g. pima club, white sonora, soft white wheat; but it turned into a donut recipe with a classic snickerdoodle flavor of light cinnamon sweetness along with some wheat nuttiness. It was also an experiment into chilling whole wheat cookie-donut dough overnight versus one hour, and using baking powder versus baking soda.
TLDR: Overnight chilling of the dough made for a smoother donut with delicious nutty bran flavor and soft texture. Baking powder makes a loftier, rounder, and slightly tangier “snickerdonut” rather than a flat cookie.
The ingredient framework comes from a recipe I printed out years ago that is no longer online. Shout out to “Warren” who submitted Lighter Snickerdoodles to Allrecipes some time before 2014. Most snickerdoodle recipes use shortening and whole eggs, but this recipe uses butter, cream cheese and an egg plus two egg whites. The resulting cookie is indeed lighter, and as I discovered this week, the lightness can go so far as to turn the cookies into donuts.
Clockwise from top left: salt, baking powder, cream of tartar, pima club wheat, butter and cream cheese, sugar, 1 egg + 2 whites
I’ve made Warren’s snickerdoodles with whole grain flour many times—the cookies come out thicker than with all purpose flour, but this time the cookies came out very tall and round. Figuring I’d done something wrong, I made a second batch…and they were still tall. This is when I did the chilling experiment, only refrigerating the dough for an hour, rather than overnight. As noted above, these “snickerdonuts” had a less silky texture.
Cracked tops are true to style
My family loved these round treats, and my son actually thought my goal was to make donut holes. He happily took a bunch to his college move-in last week. So with those rave reviews, I decided to roll with it and call them donuts…and as soon as I began the writeup, I realized what had happened: I’d been using baking powder and not baking soda as per my recipe (and basically all snickerdoodle recipes).
Baking Soda: Traditionally used in snickerdoodles and many other cookie recipes, baking soda reacts with acids e.g. cream of tartar, causing CO2 bubbles to form and the cookie to expand and often then collapse a bit. Baking soda has a pH of 8.3-8.5 that balances acids in the dough.
Baking Powder: Baking powder is baking soda + fast and slow acting acids + a filler like cornstarch for stabilization. Used in this recipe, the baking powder sustains a longer upward rise. Baking powder has a neutral pH of 7 so combined with acidic cream of tartar, the “snickerdonuts” have a little tang.
When I made a third batch with baking soda instead of baking powder, the treats were indeed a bit flatter, but I missed the extra tang from the baking powder version. To make truly flatter snickerdoodles with this recipe, use baking soda and reduce the flour by about 40-60 grams. Note that you’ll need to oil your hands to roll the wetter dough and the dough has to be cold or it will be unmanageably sticky. You can see how this flour reduction works in our Whole Grain Ginger Snaps recipe where we offer thick and thin cookie options.
Check out the Photo Gallery after the recipe for step-by-step process pics.
Whole Grain Snickerdoodle Donut Holes
Snickerdoodle donut holes bake up in just eight minutes and make a delicious treat. They have the tasty snickerdoodle tang and are lightly sweet with cinnamon and nutty whole wheat flavors. If possible, chill the dough overnight for the smoothest texture and deepest flavor. See the recipe notes for how to convert this recipe to more traditional cookies.
Serving Size
Recipe makes about 30 donut holes
Ingredients
Donut Dough
Topping
- 50 grams sugar (1/4 cup)
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon (4 grams)
Instructions
- If possible, make this cookie-donut dough the day before you bake so the whole grain flour has time to soften and spread its delicious nutty flavor.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients: flour, cream of tartar, baking powder, and salt in a medium-size bowl. Set aside.
- In a larger bowl, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the cream cheese and continue beating until smooth. Finally add the egg and egg whites, mixing thoroughly. Scrape down the sides of the bowl at least once.
- Fold in the dry ingredients and mix briefly until fully incorporated.
- Transfer the dough to a small bowl and cover tightly, with plastic pressed to the dough if possible. Chill the dough at least 1 hour and ideally overnight for optimal texture.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F and line one or two baking sheets with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
- Whisk the sugar and cinnamon topping together in a small bowl.
- Scoop a walnut-size amount of chilled dough and roll it into a ball between your palms. Do this to fill one baking sheet, then roll each dough ball in the cinnamon-sugar topping. Try to leave part of each ball uncoated on the base of the donut so the sugar doesn’t burn.
- Bake for 8 minutes. The donuts begin to crack between 7 and 8 minutes, indicating they are done baking.
Notes
* To make proper snickerdoodle cookies with this recipe, use baking soda and reduce the flour by 40-60 grams. Note that you’ll need to oil your hands to roll the wetter dough and the dough has to be cold or it will be unmanageably sticky.
