This soft and chewy Snickerdoodle Recipe is a family favorite. If you love snickerdoodle cookies the way we do, then you’ll want to have this easy snickerdoodle recipe in your collection!
The Best Snickerdoodle Recipe
For me, a delicious snickerdoodle has a few requirements:
Snickerdoodles first and foremost must be soft and chewy. The best snickerdoodle recipe in my opinion has to be a soft snickerdoodle recipe. Crunchy snickerdoodles are a hard pass for this girl. I prefer a soft snickerdoodle, and one that stays soft for days.
Next, it has to have a fantastic blend of flavor, with both butter and cinnamon coming through. The perfect snickerdoodle cookies are a delicious and balanced combo of both.
Finally, as with almost all of my recipes, I prefer an easy snickerdoodle recipe. This is a cookie, not Honors Pre-Calculus (a current headache in my home), therefore it needs to be simple and easy to make.
This snickerdoodle recipe checks ALL of those boxes.
Truth be told I didn’t even try a snickerdoodle until about ten years ago. A friend of mine loves the Disneyland snickerdoodles, and asked me to bring her one home when we went for a visit. I searched that entire park for a darn snickerdoodle. Finally a cast member at one of the bakeries told me they had rotated them out for for another cookie at that given moment in time.
So I did what any crazy, obsessed snickerdoodle stalker would do. I came home and set out to make amazing, Disney-worthy, snickerdoodles.
Recipe For Snickerdoodles
A few things to take note of before you start making this snickerdoodle recipe.
Flour
It’s critical that you measure your flour correctly. You want to give your flour a stir, then gently spoon it into the measuring cup and level it off. Check out my all about flour post if you need more details. If you scoop, or don’t level your flour, you will have too much in your recipe.
Chill Your Dough
First, you are going to need to chill your dough. I know, dough chilling can be a pain. I get it. Trust me, I avoid putting into recipes when I can. For this recipe however, it really does make a difference. Chilling the dough gives you a richer tasting cookie that doesn’t spread too much.
Brown Sugar
Second, this recipe uses brown sugar. If you’ve made snickerdoodles before, chances are they just used granulated white sugar. And that’s fine. But brown sugar, it will take your snickerdoodles up a notch.
One time I needed to make snickerdoodles for an event, and like always was doing it at the last minute. Gasp, I was almost completely out of granulated sugar. Brown sugar to the rescue! That was one of the best substitutions I’ve ever made. The depth of flavor is greatly increased and the texture is just a bit softer.
Cream Of Tartar
Third, this recipe uses cream of tartar. Apologies if you you don’t have it in your pantry at the moment, but it’s really a snickerdoodle staple.
Cream of tartar is an acid, a tartaric acid. It’s used as a leavener, and when combined with baking soda they produce dioxide gas, which is the same gas that is produced by yeast in bread baking. Not only does it help make your cookies wonderfully soft, it also gives a hint of tartness.
If you don’t have any on hand and need to make these snickerdoodle cookies immediately, here’s some substitution advice. Disclaimer, I haven’t tested this snickerdoodle recipe with a substitute, only with cream of tartar.
This soft snickerdoodle recipe produces perfect snickerdoodles that nobody can get enough of. The best snickerdoodle recipe I've tried, it uses both granulated and brown sugar for extra flavor and softness.
Prep Time 15 minutesmins
Cook Time 30 minutesmins
Total Time 45 minutesmins
Servings 36cookies
Ingredients
Cookies:
4cupsflour
1teaspoonbaking soda
1/2teaspoonbaking powder
1teaspooncream of tartar
1teaspooncinnamon
1cupbuttersoftened
3/4cupsgranulated sugar
1cupfirmly packed brown sugarlight or dark is fine
2largeeggsmake sure they are large eggs as they provide moisture for the recipe
1/3cupmilk
1teaspoonvanilla
Topping:
6tablespoonssugar
1teaspoonscinnamon
Instructions
In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon and cream of tartar. Set aside.
In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla. Mix well.
Stir in the dry ingredients. Stir until just combined.
Cover bowl (or remove dough from bowl and wrap in plastic wrap) and chill for at least one but not more than 24 hours.
When ready to bake, Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Form the dough into 1 inch balls. Mix cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and roll each ball of dough through the cinnamon and sugar mixture to coat well.
Place on a greased baking sheet or a cookie sheet covered with wax paper or silicone baking mat.
Bake 8-10 minutes. Check for the tops to start firming up, and the sides to show a bit of browning. Make sure they are cooked but do not over bake. Allow to cool on baking sheet for at least ten minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack.
Nutrition information is estimated as a courtesy. If using for medical purposes, please verify information using your own nutritional calculator. Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Need more snickerdoodle cookies in your life? I hear ya. I have a few more recipes you’ll want to try! My Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles are always a big hit. My friend Rebecca over at Foodie With Family has a Snickerdoodle Cake recipe that you need in your life. Aimee over at Shugary Sweets has a Snickerdoodle Banana Bread that makes mornings extra delicious. Snickerdoodle Pie? Oh yeah, it’s a thing and Deborah over at Taste and Tell will fill you on in that deliciousness.
Cracking occurs from several chemical reactions during the baking process. If some of your cookies aren't cracking, it could be because those dough balls were less round than others, the dough became too warm, your oven isn't heating evenly, or (most likely) the cinnamon sugar coating wasn't applied as thoroughly.
Snickerdoodles might turn out hard if they are overbaked or if the dough is too dry. Be sure to keep an eye on them as they bake – when the edges are set but the centers are still soft and puffy, they are done. Also, make sure you're not adding too much flour.
Cream of tartar is what gives snickerdoodles that tanginess. I've found that a lot of people are very sensitive to the tangy flavor of cream of tartar and the bitter, metallic flavor baking soda can have.
The most common culprit behind non-spreading cookies is too much flour. This may seem counterintuitive—after all, isn't flour a key ingredient in baking? Yes, but if you add too much flour, your cookies won't spread as they bake.
If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot. Here's what's happening. The butter melts super quickly in a too-hot oven before the other ingredients have firmed up into a cookie structure. Therefore, as the butter spreads so does the whole liquidy cookie.
Most of the time you can just skip the cream of tartar. Your desserts may not be as fluffy as you would like, but the taste will be the same. However, if you're making meringue, know that the peaks may collapse.
You can also simply leave out the cream of tartar from a recipe, which may result in baked goods that are not as fluffy, but will still work out and taste good.
Evenly space the snickerdoodles on a large baking sheet so there is about 2-3″ between the cookies. Then, bake in the preheated oven for 9 to 10 minutes. It's very important not to over-bake these snickerdoodle cookies. When they're done, the snickerdoodles will be puffed, a parts of the cookie will look set.
Dry – “Dry” or “Crumbly” dough is a product of over-mixing or using too much of any ingredient during the mixing process. This can be reversed by adding one to two tablespoons of liquid (water, milk or softened butter) to your mix.
When cookie dough is too sticky, you may have an imbalance of wet and dry ingredients. You can fix this by adding a teaspoon of flour or cornstarch at a time until your dough is just how you want. The added flour or cornstarch will absorb the excess liquid and reduce the dough's overall stickiness.
Yes! Prepare the snickerdoodle cookie dough, scoop it, roll it in sugar, and refrigerate it overnight. Cookie dough that's been in the fridge for longer than 2 hours should sit at room temperature for 15-20 minutes before baking, to take the chill off.
They puff in the oven and then settle back down while cooling into a soft, thick, supremely chewy cookie with a gorgeous crinkly top. They've received nothing but rave reviews! Snickerdoodle is sort of a strange name, yes?
“Snickerdoodles, also called snipdoodles or cinnamon sugar cookies, have been around since the late 1800s. They probably originated in New England and are either of German or Dutch descent.
Why is My Dough Runny? Kind of like how crumbly dough is usually because there's too much of the dry ingredients, runny cookie dough comes from having too much of the liquid ingredients.
1931s Joy of Cooking claims the term snickerdoodle is based off the German word Schneckennudel—a German pastry whose name literally translates as 'snail noodle'. A Schneckennudel is a yeast dough roll that more closely resembles a cinnamon bun, not a snickerdoodle cookie.
Oven temperatures are a crucial factor in baking. If your cookies consistently come out flat, you may have selected the wrong baking temperature. If you bake cookies using too much heat, the fats in the dough begin to melt before the other ingredients can cook together and form your cookie's rise.
However they won't be particularly chewy and they should not spread out on the baking sheet that much. There are several reasons why the cookies may have become dry and crumbly but the two most likely are that either the cookies were baked for too long or too much flour was added to the dough.
If your butter is under mixed, it won't have the air pockets to hold it's shape. If it's over-mixed, the air pockets decrease in size and are unable to hold their shape in the oven—causing your cookies to spread. It's best to cream butter and sugar on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes.
Why do my snickerdoodles taste sour? If you think your snickerdoodles taste sour, there is nothing to worry about. The cream of tartar adds a tangy flavor to the batter, which could give it a slightly tart taste.
In some recipes, you can leave out cream of tartar if there is no suitable replacement. You can simply omit cream of tartar from the recipe if you're making whipped egg whites, syrups, frostings, or icings.
What is a Good Replacement for Cream of Tartar? A good replacement for cream of tartar in baking is 1 teaspoon of vinegar or lemon juice for every 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar.
The bottom line: For smooth, stiff beaten egg whites that keep their shape, don't skip the cream of tartar. If you don't have cream of tartar, substituting 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice or white vinegar per egg white works almost as well. To avoid meringues that weep, don't skip the cream of tartar...
Adding it to cake or cookie batters prevents sugar from banding together and crystallizing, meaning that it results in more of a tender chew—snickerdoodles and sugar cookies wouldn't be the same without cream of tartar. The same effect is why it's added to some frostings and syrups, where it helps keep things smooth.
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Introduction: My name is Virgilio Hermann JD, I am a fine, gifted, beautiful, encouraging, kind, talented, zealous person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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