Classic snickerdoodles recipe that makes cookies with crispy edges and soft, chewy centers. Jump to the Easy Snickerdoodles Recipe
How to Make Snickerdoodles with Crispy Edges and Chewy Centers
These soft and chewy snickerdoodles are made with butter, a hint of vanilla and our favorite, tangy cream of tartar. Then they are rolled in cinnamon and sugar. These are the best cookies. By the way, we love these cinnamon and sugar coated cookies so much, we made a chocolate version.
These cookies are easy. The ingredients are simple — flour, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Then the crinkly top is achieved with a combination of baking soda and cream of tartar.
We love easy cookie recipes, take a look at these Soft Ginger Cookies with Chocolate Chips — they are delicious and so simple.
To make the snickerdoodles, we cream butter and sugar together for a few minutes, add eggs then mix in the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and some salt.
The dough is chilled for 30 minutes then rolled in cinnamon sugar.
Chilling the dough is pretty important. The time in the fridge helps the flour absorb some of the moisture from the eggs and butter, which helps make them more chewy. It also makes rolling the cookies in the cinnamon-sugar go smoothly. We actually chill these chocolate chips cookies overnight.
What is Cream of Tartar and Why Does It Need to Be in My Cookies?
You might be wondering about the cream of tarter in the recipe. It’s is important, here’s why.
Cream of tartar is actually a byproduct of wine making (there’s our random fact of the day for you). More importantly, cream of tartar is often used to stabilize egg whites or cream while whipping them.
It is also often added to baked goods to help activate baking soda.
The cream of tartar adds tanginess and chew to the cookies — transforming these from butter-sugar cookies to snickerdoodle cookies.
For more cookie recipes, check out our Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Easy Chewy Double Chocolate Cookies and our Rich Buttery Shortbread Cookies. You might also love our Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!
Recipe updated, originally posted December 2013. Since posting this in 2013, we have tweaked the recipe to be more clear and added a quick recipe video. – Adam and Joanne
Easy Snickerdoodles with Soft Chewy Centers
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Every time we make a batch of these cinnamon sugared cookies we fall in love all over again. Chilling the dough for 30 minutes or so is important, here. It’s a little sticky so the chill helps make rolling the dough into balls and then into the cinnamon sugar easy.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Cookies2 1/2 cups (350 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
16 tablespoons (226 grams or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
Cinnamon Coating1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
Directions
- Make Dough
1Sift or whisk flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and the salt together then set aside.
2In a large bowl, using a handheld mixer on medium speed beat the butter, sugar and vanilla together until light and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes. (Or, use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment).
3Reduce the speed to low, and then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl then add the flour mixture in three parts, just mixing until it disappears.
4Wrap with plastic wrap and chill dough at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
- To Bake Cookies
1Heat your oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicon baking mats.
2In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon together.
3Shape heaping-tablespoon-sized mounds of cookie dough into balls. Roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and place 2 inches apart onto baking sheets. (A medium cookie scoop is helpful here).
4Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes, until the cookies have puffed a little and the tops look set. The cookies should be light golden.
5Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. (The cookies will fall a little as they cool).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Baked and cooled cookies will keep, stored in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
- You can freeze this cookie dough. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, scoop and roll individual dough balls and place onto the baking sheet (they can be close together), and then place in the freezer until hard, about 30 minutes. Transfer frozen dough balls to an airtight container or plastic bag.
- We use kosher salt. If you don’t have it on hand, keep this in mind: 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt = about 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt.
- Recipe adapted and inspired by The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook, Smitten Kitchen and Cooks Illustrated.
- Nutrition Facts: The nutrition facts provided below are estimates. We have used the USDA Supertracker recipe calculator to calculate approximate values.
If you make this recipe, snap a photo and hashtag it #inspiredtaste — We love to see your creations on Instagram and Facebook! Find us: @inspiredtaste
Hi, I plan to make these as your recipe looks very well thought out and the cookies look great. I have one question. “A medium cookie scoop is helpful here” – what size, exactly, is this. I have a 3 tbs. scoop – ok or too big? Thanks, Bill
Hi Bill, Medium cookie scoops are usually 1 ½ to 2 tablespoons.
Thank-you. Ordered the smaller size.
I ground my own cinnamon by using a coffee grinder to grind up cinnamon sticks. And it changed the game. Taking these to 11.
This snickerdoodle recipe is by far the best ever.
I just came across your website. Love your recipes and ideas. I want to try them all. I am getting hungry just looking at the recipes. TKS
These cookies do not fail. Absolutely lovely!
Made snickerdoodles for the first time using this recipe and I have no regrets! The perfect balance of crisp and chewy in the center. The flavor was spot on as well. I also used part brown sugar too which I think is what made them even chewier in the center! However, they did come out a little too thin for my preference.
The best cookie I have made! Love it
Wow, these are perfection! For the last few years I’ve been using a different recipe that used half butter and half Crisco. I didn’t like using the Crisco, I wanted an all butter recipe and this one delivered. I followed the instructions exactly as noted and these came out just as described. I think one of the important things to note is to not over bake the cookies.You have to take them out before they are totally done and keep them on the hot cookie sheet as noted. There was way too much sugar and cinnamon though, so I dipped the top of each cookie in it for more sugary goodness.Thank you!!
Absolute Perfection!! These are heavenly. I followed the recipe exactly, but used sea salt instead of Kosher salt. I didn’t read the note after that stated that 1 1/4 tsp kosher salt = 1 tsp sea salt, so i used 1tsp sea salt. It still turned out fantastic. I even added the eggs after the flour accidentally! This is my go-to, thank you!!
Oh my golly gosh! This is the recipe I have been searching for! The cookies have the right tang, the crispy edges, and chewy centers. I will be baking lots of these. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Made these tonight BEST COOKIE EVER!! Didn’t have cream of tartar so I took out baking soda and used 2 tsp of baking powder!! They came out so perfectly crispy on outside so soft and chewy on inside!!!