Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
The popular cinnamon-sugar soft and chewy sugar cookie recipe. A recipe that has been in the family for over 30 years!
This was one of the first cookie recipes I made as a kid. As I have shared before, I was fully obsessed with cookbooks as a little girl. My Mom collected church cookbooks and I would go straight to the cookie recipes and beg my Mom to let me whip up a batch. I made this snickerdoodle cookie recipe 30 years ago and it is still the best I have ever tasted.
This is such a popular Christmas cookie because I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t love snickerdoodle cookies! When I used to teach a cooking school for kids, it was the first cookie I taught them to make because kids love them. Whenever I make these cookies, they disappear so darn fast!
So what makes a perfect snickerdoodle cookie?
A snickerdoodle cookie has to be soft and chewy. No hard hockey puck cookies here! It has to be rolled twice in cinnamon-sugar to ensure that it is completely coated. It also has to have the signature tang from the cream of tartar.
How to make the BEST Snickerdoodle Cookie:
- Start by creaming butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes. This is an important step as the butter coats the sugar crystals and creates a smooth texture. It also whips air into the cookie dough.
- Use Cream of Tartar as a leavening agent. It gives it the signature tangy flavor and chewy texture. A touch of baking soda helps the cookies to rise as well.
- Double roll the cookie balls into a cinnamon-sugar mixture. This helps to make sure the cookies are completely coated in cinnamon-sugar before baking.
- Bake just until the edges begin to become a light golden color. These snickerdoodle cookies need to be soft and chewy so watch carefully. If you want them to be flat, press the balls down in the center before placing in the oven.
- My favorite baking tools for perfect Snickerdoodle cookies — light-colored baking sheets, parchment paper sheets, KitchenAid mixer.
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Check out some more of my most popular cookie recipes:
Levain Bakery Chocolate Chip Cookies
MJ’s Top Secret Chocolate Chip Cookies
Lemon Sugar Cookies
Soft Chewy Sugar Cookies
Grandma Geri’s Gingersnaps
Chocolate Mint Chip Cookies
Mrs. Claus Peppermint Bark Chocolate Cookies
The Best Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe. Soft and Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies. The popular cinnamon-sugar soft and chewy sugar cookie recipe. A recipe that has been in the family for over 30 years!
- 1 cup Unsalted Butter (softened)
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 2 large Eggs
- 2 teaspoons Vanilla
- 2 3/4 cup Flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1/4 cup Sugar
- 1 1/2 Tablespoons Cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar for 4-5 minutes until light and fluffy. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the eggs and vanilla. Cream for 1-2 minutes longer.
Stir in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt, just until combined.
In a small bowl, stir together sugar and cinnamon.
If time allows, wrap the dough and let refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Roll into small balls until round and smooth. Drop into the cinnamon-sugar mixture and coat well. Using a spoon, coat for a second time, ensuring the cookie balls are completely covered. *To make flatter snickerdoodles, press down in the center of the ball before placing in the oven. This helps to keep them from puffing up in the middle. *
Place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake for 9-11 minutes. Let cool for several minutes on baking sheet before removing from the pan.
I hope you love this snickerdoodle cookie recipe and it becomes a staple in your family for years! Happy Baking!
OMGosh these are no doubt the best I have ever tasted!!! Found the recipe by chance but now I have it wrote down! Thank you so much for posting! And I am following you now can’t wait to try another recipe!
Yes hi I tried this and when I got the dough out of the fridge I couldn’t even make a ball becuase of the texture. It was just kind of creamy still. What did I do wrong?
OMGosh these are no doubt the best I have ever tasted!!! I wanted a easy recipe for our 3 year old would have fun making. Found the recipe by chance but now I have it wrote down! Thank you so much for posting! And I am following you now can’t wait to try another recipe!
I easily made these vegan by eliminating the egg, using 3 tablespoons applesauce for each egg eliminated, and for leavening I increased the cream of tartar to 2 teaspoons and increased the baking soda to 2 teaspoons. Perfect.
This is the first and last snickerdoodle recipe I have tried. Like many, I flattened the dough so the cookies were thin. Only put sugar mixture on top of cookie. They are chewy and delicious and perfect. They can even withstand a slight over cooking in case you flub. Every time someone new tries one of these after I bake them their eyes widen and you can tell they are impressed.
These were delicious. I rolled and sugared, then refrigerated on cookie sheets for about 10 minutes. Gave each ball a quick flatten with the palm of my hand and baked for 9 minutes. I probably did heaping TBL sized balls and so I actually got about 3.5 dozen cookies and they were perfect.
Hi! Thanks for the recipe. It’s got the perfect taste. They crumble very easily though. I did change something in the recipe, i used a third of white sugar and 2 thirds of brown sugar. Do you think it could have been that?
I thought I would give this recipe a try. Being a chef I often question the balance of ingredients I find on the internet, especially when taking a small recipe and blowing it up to greater quantities. These were perfect! My first test was very successful taking your measurements and converting them all into weights which makes it easier to scale . Knowing that I make my cookies a little bigger at 54g I calculated this recipe x8 with the goal to get 12 dz. It was right on the money yielding me approx 144 cookies at 54g or 1.9 ozw. Its extremely rare that this happens. I served these for lunch today and they were gone in no time. I find that only 1 in 15 recipes I find on the internet comes out as planned when scaling up. I usually can spot issues when scaling to much larger quantities and adjust accordingly. It was refreshing to find a recipe that works with any quantity when scaling. Next time I’ll be taking this up to 30 dz and am confident the results will be the same. Incidentally I also am testing different caramels with the stuffed snickerdoodle starting with the caramels you suggested – they are cooling as I type and will most likely try this addition next time. Thank you for sharing.
I made these at Christmas for work. Were a big hit! One of my co-workers put in a special request to have them again, will be making them this weekend 🍪
I made this as a snickerdoodle newbie (and not particularly gifted baker) and theh were easy AND amazing! Making a double batch again now. Such a crowd pleaser.
My first coronavirus stress bake. so good and so comforting. thank you!
I’ve been baking everything there is possible to bake in this time ahaha.
what if i used salted butter? would it taste alright?
I’m in the same boat and I’ve heard that you can – just reduce the amount of sale to about ¼ tsp instead.
I used salted butter and omitted salt later. tasted fine.
I would not use salted butter for this cookie
I’m not an advocate of writing alterations to recipes in review comments and am sure the original recipe is amazing but desperate times call for desperate measures folks. I’m pandemic baking, my kid is off school indefinitely and we’re shut up in the house so…let’s make cookies. Of course I didn’t have enough white sugar on hand and I’m avoiding the grocery store if possible. So…I winged it, 1c white sugar, 1c brown sugar and 1/2 c maple syrup. Maple snickerdoodles! Amazing. So, so good! Can’t wait to try the original recipe once I can go buy sugar. Thanks for the recipe, easy and delicious.
I’m not an advocate of writing alterations to recipes in review comments and am sure the original recipe is amazing but desperate times call for desperate measures folks. I’m pandemic baking, my kid is off school indefinitely and we’re shut up in the house so…let’s make cookies. Of course I didn’t have enough white sugar on hand and I’m avoiding the grocery store if possible. So…I winged it, 1/2c white sugar, 1/2c brown sugar and 1/2 c maple syrup. Maple snickerdoodles! Amazing. So, so good! Can’t wait to try the original recipe once I can go buy sugar. Thanks for the recipe, easy and delicious.
This is my favorite snickerdoodle recipe
Hello, can I use baking powder instead of baking soda? If so, how much would I use. Thank you!
Baking Powder is actually baking soda + cream of tartar!
So two teaspoons of baking powder to sub the baking soda and cream of tarter?
This snickerdoodle recipe is so yummy . This is my favorite recipe!! 🙂
This is the second time I’ve made these cookies in a week. This is the absolute best name for these cookies. My son loves cinnamon did mention that he wished he could taste more cinnamon so I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to the cookie batter and they Thurber out great. This is a great recipe and very easy to follow. I’m used to following recipes but if someone was just starting out with learning to read recipes this is a great one to start with. Yum!!!
I don’t normally leave ratings, but I had to for these cookies. My boyfriend and I are in quarantine, and these cookies didn’t stand a chance of lasting more than 48 hours. I’m sure we’ll be baking another batch next week.
Thanks! Made during #QuarantineBaking – I didn’t bother to flatten the cookies and they still turned out fine.
These are seriously the “best” snickerdoodles! Snickerdoodles are my favorite, so I have made them many times with many different recipes, and this is my new go to recipe for perfect snickerdoodle. My seven-year-old was able to do most of the baking herself, with just a little supervision, and the result was perfectly soft and chewy cookies with lot of cinnamon flavor and a buttery crisp to the edges. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe!
Quarantine Quandaries
When you amazing husband, Tod, has a birthday amid all the craziness of Lockdown 2020. Our daughter was lamenting not being able to go shopping to get her Dad a birthday gift and thought of making him Snickerdoodles. Tod has asked to have these in place of cake! They ARE that good; thank you for sharing.
Very good cookies! I used a large cookie scoop which has a flat bottom, so left just like that; didn’t roll. Used the spoon to put on the cinnamon sugar. Didn’t flatten. Came out beautifully! Not so flat, fluffy, yummy!! Wish I could post a picture! Will use recipe again. Thanks!
This was my first time making snickerdoodles and they came out amazing. Thanks for the recipe
These cookies were awesome! I did them multiple times myself and they turned out great every time. My family likes the cookies thick and doughy so I didn’t flatten them. I hope other people enjoy these cookies as much as I did 😊
Excellent recipe! Gave up my ‘go to’ recipe of 25 years when I found this one! It’s a fantastic dough, and the Snickerdoodle is pure magic, but you can also add into the plain dough craisins and pistashios, almonds and chocolate chunks, candied orange peel and cardamom without the cinnamon and sugar coating and OH MY!!!
Thank you for such a versatile dough and most of all the BEST SNICKERDOODLE EVER!!!
I forgot the STARS* * * * *
The best cookie recipe I have ever made. I didn’t have baking soda so I used baking powder, but tripled the amount, as google suggested. 🙂 I chilled the cookie dough overnight, rolled them out while they were still chilled and pushed them down with the bottom of a glass before baking. Beautiful, soft and delicious cookies. Thank you!
My grandson requested snickerdoodles so I searched for a recipe and chose yours. I followed the recipe exactly… mixing and chilling times, flattening the dough ball with my palm… and the cookies turned out perfectly! Due to our social distancing mandate, I dropped the cookies off and headed back home. The phone was ringing as I walked in the door, It was my daughter, “Mom, SAVE THAT RECIPE! Those are the best snickerdoodles I have ever eaten!” I told her to be sure and save a few for the kids!
Your cookies were a huge hit. Thank you for sharing your recipe!!
too good!
I am making this recipe for “Teacher Appreciation Week”, yes, we are delivering cookies next week during Distance Learning. My question: Can you double this recipe and still achieve maximum deliciousness? I will begin with a single batch until I hear otherwise. Thank you for sharing your yummy recipes.
Everything worked out great, thanks.
I think people that have issues with hardness or not flatting are not mixing the dry ingredients first.
The Cream of Tarter and backing soda cant are part of cookie science.
#PROTIP Use a whisk or a fork to blend your dry ingredients
Great recipe!! Cookies turned out yummy!! Snickerdoodles take me back to my middle school home ec memories. Thank you for the recipe!
Has anyone halved the recipe and was it successful?
Can I use stick margarine instead of butter?
I tried making these cookies today and for some reason the dough was very sticky and soft after I chilled it in the fridge. I couldn’t roll them into balls because they were so sticky, and after baking them for 9-10 min, they turned out very cakey. Anyone know how this could have happened? I followed the ingredients and recipe step by step and I can’t figure out why it turned out like this.
is it okay if i use baking powder instead of cream of tartar because I can’t find it in any supermarket around me?
Found on-line: “Cream of Tartar Substitute – The answer is – there is not a good substitution for cream of tartar. If it is used along with baking soda in a cake or cookie recipe, omit both and use baking powder instead. … One (1) teaspoon baking powder is equivalent to 1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar.” Cookies look delicious, but haven’t tried them yet so no rating!
I love snickerdoodles!!! When I was invited to a cookiebration I knew those were the cookies I was going to bring. I found this recipes and read the reviews which said they were simple to make and delicious. Omg the reviews did not lie. I felt kind of bad at the party because everyone was eating my cookies and none of anyone else’s! Now that I have discovered Modern Honey I have tried dozens of her recipes. Haven’t found one yet that I haven’t liked!!
Perfectly balanced cookie recipe! I agree they are the best I have ever had.
Well I don’t know what I did wrong, but they took a full 18 minutes to bake. It’s a new oven that has been perfectly calibrated and I’ve verified the correct temperature, and I followed the recipe exactly, so I’m at a total loss. I refrigerated the dough for just 15 mins, the amount of time it took the oven to preheat. I’m not exactly a novice baker either. They also never did crackle like my snickerdoodles typically do, so I don’t know what’s going on but I will probably test a different recipe next time to see if the problem persists.
Simple and delicious! Best snickerdoodles ever!
This is the BEST snickerdoodle recipe I have ever tried! When the first pan came out of the oven, my husband was waiting to try them. I used unsalted Irish butter I had in my fridge which made them so rich! These cookies won’t last long as snickerdoodles are his favorite cookie!! Yummy!!!
Love this recipe! Came out so perfect!
Hi! I just made these cookies and the dough came out very sticky. It made it pretty hard to work with (in terms of making them into balls). Was wondering if that’s how the dough comes out or any suggestions for next time if it is not supposed to be like that. Just waiting for them to cool down!
That recipe name is no lie. These are the best!!! They were a huge hit and will now be my signature cookie! (As if I haven’t gained enough weight during this pandemic . . .)