Soft and chewy snickerdoodles rolled in an irresistible cinnamon sugar. These easy snickerdoodles are one of our best classic cookie recipes on Inspired Taste.
Watch the video
⭐️ Try our chocolate snickerdoodles, a chocolate sugar cookie rolled in cinnamon sugar!
#1 Secret to the best snickerdoodles
The secret to making the best snickerdoodles is to use cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is unique acid that helps to create the delicious tangy flavor and chewy texture of great snickerdoodle cookies.
What is a snickerdoodle?
Snickerdoodles are soft and chewy sugar cookies coated in cinnamon sugar. Unlike classic sugar cookies, they have cream of tartar added to the batter, making them chewy and adding a tangy flavor that makes snickerdoodles irresistible. These cookies are popular in the United States, especially during the holidays.
Key ingredients
To make snickerdoodle cookie dough, you’ll need all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, room-temperature butter, eggs, vanilla, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
The cream of tartar, a byproduct of making wine, and baking soda react with one another to help our cookies rise, turn golden brown, and become chewy.
Before baking, we roll balls of cookie dough in cinnamon sugar. We are generous with the cinnamon for our coating and use 1 ½ tablespoons with 1/4 cup of sugar. The tangy flavor from the cream of tartar and this easy cinnamon sugar coating makes these cookies taste amazing.
Our tips for making the best snickerdoodle cookies
When you use room-temperature butter and eggs in your snickerdoodle batter, they get a head start in the mixing process. The butter will be softer and more pliable, making it easier to cream together with the sugar. This creaming process is essential for incorporating air into the batter, giving snickerdoodles their soft, light, and chewy texture.
Chilling the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes before baking helps to prevent the cookies from spreading too much. You can bake snickerdoodles without chilling, but expect them to be thinner when baked.
Be generous rolling balls of cookie dough in our cinnamon sugar. That cinnamon sugar coating gives snickerdoodles their signature look and flavor.
Do your best not to overbake the cookies. Look for them to be golden around the edges and a little soft in the center.
How to make snickerdoodles in 5 easy steps
- Cream together room-temperature butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
- Beat the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract.
- Mix in the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- Chill for at least 30 minutes (or up to 3 days).
- Roll in cinnamon sugar and bake.
Can you make snickerdoodles without cream of tartar?
You can make snickerdoodles without cream of tartar, but you will lose the irresistible tangy flavor cream of tartar adds to these cookies. The texture will also be different. We recommend leaving out the baking soda and cream of tartar and using baking powder instead. We have not tested this snickerdoodle cookies recipe with baking powder (it’s on our to-do list).
Easy Snickerdoodles (Soft & Chewy)
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
We love these soft and chewy snickerdoodle cookies rolled in an irresistible cinnamon sugar. Every time we make a batch, we fall in love all over again. Chilling the dough for 30 minutes or so helps keep the cookies from spreading too much in the oven. You can keep the dough in the fridge for up to 3 days and in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
Cookies2 ½ cups (325 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
16 tablespoons (226 grams or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ 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 ½ 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.
- 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 database to calculate approximate values.
You May Also Like...
This is something that every home as well as company needs.
LOVE this recipe, I use it every year at holiday time! I’d use it more, but I don’t bake during the year, because I’d eat what I make! I give treats out at holiday time.
I would like to mention that the grams of flour listed at 350 for 2.5 cups of flour is too high. Maybe check into that. I doubled the recipe as I normally do and decided to use my digital scale. 5 cups of flour should be in the low 600g range, not 700 (350 x 2). I use a lot of your recipes, love the simplicity. Thank you!
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.
Thanks, these have a very nice flavour. And they are quite caramelly. Yet I think there may too much butter for the amount of flour. Many years ago I used to use the old Better Homes & Gardens recipe for Snickerdoodles and the ratio of butter/flour for it was 1:3. And it used far less cream of tartar. They didn’t spread out anywhere near as much as many current recipes do.
I ground my own cinnamon by using a coffee grinder to grind up cinnamon sticks. And it changed the game. Taking these to 11.
What a great idea! Glad you loved them 🙂
This snickerdoodle recipe is by far the best ever.
Yay! We are thrilled you love them 🙂
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
Wonderful. You have made our day 🙂
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.
What a nice review! 🙂
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!!!
We are so glad replacing the cream of tartar worked for you! We still need to test this out ourselves. It has been on our to-do list for a while 🙂