Sunday was dreary, rainy, stay-at-home-and-watch-whole-seasons-of-Modern-Family kind of day and everybody knows that on days like that, cookies are pretty much mandatory.

I’ve had Snickerdoodles on the brain lately; I got one in a bakery a few weeks ago and it was delightful. A treat ladened with cinnamon and sugar can pretty much do no wrong in my book, but I did have a hard time justifying a recipe that called for 2 sticks of butter. I had experimented with a “lighter” Snickerdoodle recipe awhile back that was based on a “light” cookie recipe from my America’s Test Kitchen cookbook; it used about 1/4 of the butter of a regular cookie recipe and they came out pretty good, so I decided to give them another shot.

These guys got an enthusiastic Justin Seal of Approval and were gone by Monday so I would deem them a success. We even got another Snickerdoodle from a nearby bakery to conduct a taste test (man, the things that we do for the blog) and, in our opinion, there isn’t a huge difference in taste between the full-fledged cookie and the “light” version. Huzzah!

“Light” Snickerdoodles

makes: 15-20, depending on the size of the cookies /  prep time: 10 minutes / bake time: 9-11 minutes

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons + 3 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon, divided
• 1 cup + 1/4 cup sugar, divided
• 5  tablespoons butter, softened
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon vanilla

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in a bowl and set aside. Combine 1 cup of sugar and the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat on medium speed until fully combined, about 3 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl from time to time. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined. Slowly add in the flour mixture and mix on low until combined. In a small bowl, combine the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Work with a tablespoon of dough at a time, roll it into a ball, flatten it slightly between your palms and press both sides into the cinnamon/sugar mixture to coat it. Line a couple of cookie sheets with parchment paper and space the cookies about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle some of the cinnamon/sugar mixture over top of the cookies. Bake the sheets one at a time for 9-11 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!