Orange Ginger Snickerdoodles

1. In a large bowl, cream together the softened butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar until mixture is light-colored and fluffy, about 1-2 minutes.
2. Add the egg, grated ginger, orange juice, orange zest, vanilla extract, and mix well, for about 1 minute.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, cream of tartar, 1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon, baking soda, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and mix until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.
4. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours, or until the dough is well chilled.
5. Once the snickerdoodle dough is chilled, preheat oven to 375°F. Line large baking sheets with parchment paper. Stir together 8 tsp granulated sugar and 2 tsp ground cinnamon in a small bowl until evenly combined.
6. Using a 1 1/2-tbsp capacity cookie scoop (or a spoon), scoop cookies and quickly form into balls with your hands. You may wish to roll each ball a bit oblong like an egg (a bit taller than wider) to help snickerdoodles bake thicker. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar to cover all sides and place on the prepared baking sheet at least 3"-apart from one another. Repeat with the remainder of the dough.
7. Bake for 8 minutes, or until the edges of the snickerdoodles are golden and have set. The center of each cookie will remain soft but not raw. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5-8 minutes (they will deflate and firm up some as they cool), then carefully transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe notes

• Use a "fresh" baking sheet for each batch, a.k.a. one that is completely cool. Even slightly warm sheets can cause cookies to spread too much.
• Give these cookies lots of room on the baking sheet to spread without running into each other. Resist the urge to crowd the pan!
• If you're having an issue with the cookies baking thinner than you'd like, try scooping a cookie dough ball and rolling into an oblong shape like an egg – taller than wider. Then place each egg-shaped cookie on the parchment-lined sheets, very lightly pressing them down so they stand up straight. This is a little trick I use to help boost the thickness of a cookie.
• While every batch of these cookies I've made has been chewy and enjoyable, I've found lining a darker baking or cookie sheet with parchment paper repeatedly resulted in the thickest batches of snickerdoodles.

Notes Flavors: As written this recipe is pretty boldly flavored. You can certainly reduce the orange zest if you'd like less of that flavor in the mix. Keeping dough chilled: If baking chilled cookies in multiple batches, I like to keep the mixing bowl with the remaining dough in the fridge while the other batches are baking. That way I scoop/roll and place them on the sheet just prior to that batch baking. This helps prevent the dough from warming up too much, which can lead to thinner and spread out cookies. You can also scoop/roll the cookies, place them on their baking sheets, then place the whole sheets in the fridge, but I rarely have enough room in there for that.