Snickerdoodle Cookies

This soft, thick, and chewy snickerdoodles are melt in your mouth delicious! Adapted from a bakery recipe that's been made 100s of times, this is a foolproof recipe that makes a dozen medium snickerdoodles.

Next up in my Lynn's Desserts series is my favorite cookie of the bunch: snickerdoodles! A true classic, these snickerdoodles are soft, chewy, tender, melt-in-your mouth delicious.

Many snickerdoodle recipes yield pretty thin cookies, but not these. This is a nice thick cookie that's soft without being cakey.

Like all good cookie recipes, these come together in one bowl using classic ingredients. Let's get baking!

Jump to:

• Why this recipe works
• Ingredients
• Step-by-step instructions
• Top tips
• FAQ
• Storage tips
• More cookie recipes
• Recipe
• Comments

Why this recipe works

• Made hundreds of times: This recipe is adapted as part of my Lynn's Desserts recipes. Lynn developed this recipe and baked these cookies hundreds of times as part of her baking business. I adapted the recipe from 100 cookies down to a neat dozen.
• Classic snickerdoodles: Just like with Lynn's peanut butter cookies, we aren't reinventing the wheel here. These are just plain good cookies, made with the home baker in mind.
• Quick & easy: The cookie dough doesn't need to be chilled, so these snickerdoodles are ready in 30 minutes from start to finish!

Ingredients

• Cream of tartar: This is integral to snickerdoodle flavor and it also adds a slight yellowness to the cookies.
• Unsalted butter: Soften to room temperature. To speed up the process, slice the stick of butter into smaller pieces after taking it out from the fridge.
• Cinnamon: The snickerdoodles themselves don't have any cinnamon in them. It's the cinnamon sugar coating that adds that classic golden appearance to the cookies.
• Granulated sugar: This is used in the cookie and as part of the cinnamon sugar coating.

The full ingredient list and ingredient mounts are at the bottom of the page.

Step-by-step instructions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, use a hand mixer on low speed to cream together the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. This takes about a minute.
2. Add in the egg and vanilla extract, mixing until just combined, about 30 seconds.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Add these to the wet ingredients about ½ cup at a time. This ensures that the dry ingredients distribute evenly. The dough should be easy to roll into a ball but not too dry that it crumbles.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the cinnamon and ⅓ cup sugar. Roll 2-tablespoons sized cookie dough balls and drop them in the cinnamon sugar, flipping to coat.
5. This recipe makes roughly 12 medium snickerdoodles. Leave 2-3 inches between each dough ball.
6. Bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are set and the cookies are crackled and turning golden.

Top tips

• Cinnamon sugar: I tweaked the cinnamon sugar amounts a lot during testing. I landed on 1 tablespoon of cinnamon per ⅓ cup granulated sugar. This is definitely something you can adjust to taste based on how cinnamony you'd like the snickerdoodles to be.
• If you're having trouble getting the sugar to stick to the snickerdoodles, just sprinkle additional cinnamon sugar on top once the cookie dough is on the baking sheet.
• The snickerdoodles are supposed to collapse after removing from the oven. You might notice them puffing up as they bake. Once they're removed from the oven, they lose their structure (this is a good thing!) which causes that classic crackled appearance on top.

FAQ

More cookie recipes

This recipe is part of my Lynn's Dessert series, which features classic bakery recipes that have been made hundreds of times. If you enjoy this recipe, make sure to check out one of the many other desserts in the series or leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

Recipe