Here is my reader favorite recipe for soft and thick snickerdoodles. These soft-baked snickerdoodle cookies only require about 30 minutes start to finish!
Snickerdoodles are a timeless classic, just like a good batch of chocolate chip cookies or peanut butter cookies. Like drop sugar cookies wrapped in a cinnamon sugar hug, these irresistible cookies never go out of style. My recipe yields the softest and thickest snickerdoodles you’ll ever taste. I like to call them snickerdoodle pillows because they are perfectly fat and puffy! Much too often you’re left with flat, crispy, and thin cookies. The only remedy is to submerge them in a tall glass of milk. But what about starting out with a kitchen tested recipe for soft-baked snickerdoodles? You’ve come to the right place. 🙂
How to Make Soft Snickerdoodles
How do you make snickerdoodles puffy and soft? The secret’s in the ratio of butter to leavener to flour to egg. Don’t use shortening here; you’ll miss the flavor of butter. Slightly under-baking the snickerdoodles also guarantees a softer cookie. Take them out of the oven after about 10-11 minutes. This will keep the interior of the cookie soft and chewy.
Why is Cream of Tartar in Snickerdoodles?
Instead of baking powder, use cream of tartar and baking soda in snickerdoodles. Sure, you could use 2 teaspoons of baking powder instead of the cream of tartar + baking soda, but then you won’t really have a snickerdoodle. Cream of tartar adds a unique tangy flavor to the cookie, which sets it apart from sugar cookies and makes it a classic snickerdoodle. You also use it for the best flavor in maple pecan snickerdoodles. It’s absolutely delicious!
No Cookie Dough Chilling!
Great news! You can skip the cookie dough chilling step with this snickerdoodle recipe. There’s enough flour in this cookie dough to create a strong and sturdy cookie without the crutch of chilling the dough first. There’s also no fancy-pants ingredients required. These snickerdoodles are EASY. Shortbread cookies are another easy no chill recipe to keep in your back pocket.
A medium cookie scoop is helpful to divide up the dough. Roll each dough ball in cinnamon sugar, and arrange on a lined baking sheet:
These snickerdoodle cookies aced the true “soft test” meaning they remained soft on day 2! In fact, they were still soft on day 4. (And I’m surprised there are any leftover by that point, but I was trying to make a point!) Since they remain so soft, snickerdoodles are the perfect cookie for gift-giving. I know there are many snickerdoodle lovers out there!
If you’re looking for other snickerdoodle favorites, here are my pumpkin snickerdoodles, peanut butter snickerdoodles, chocolate snickerdoodles, and snickerdoodle blondies. And are you craving cake? Here’s my snickerdoodle cake & swirled snickerdoodle cupcakes recipes.
This recipe also joins 30+ others in my collection of Quick Dessert Recipes—ready in 1 hour or less!
Soft & Thick Snickerdoodles
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 26-28 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Here is my reader favorite recipe for soft and thick snickerdoodles. These soft-baked snickerdoodle cookies only require about 30 minutes start to finish! No dough chilling required.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar*
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (16 Tbsp; 226g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 and 1/3 cup (267g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Topping
- 1/3 cup (70g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats (always recommended for cookies). Set aside.
- Make the cookies: Whisk the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl using a hand mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and granulated sugar together on high speed until smooth and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Beat on medium-high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and up the bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. With the mixer running on low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients in 3 different parts. The dough will be thick.
- Make the topping: Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.
- Roll cookie dough into balls, about 1.5 Tablespoons (35g) of cookie dough each. I recommend this cookie scoop. Roll the dough balls in cinnamon-sugar topping. Sprinkle extra cinnamon-sugar on top if desired. Arrange 3 inches apart on the baking sheets.
- Bake cookies for 10 minutes. The cookies will be very puffy and soft. When they are still very warm, lightly press down on them with the back of a spoon or fork to help flatten them out. Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Cookies remain soft & fresh for 7 days in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: There are a few options here! First, you can prepare the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Make sure that you let it come to room temperature before rolling and baking the cookies. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls. Roll the dough into balls then freeze the balls for up to 2-3 months. You can freeze the cookie dough balls with the cinnamon sugar coating or without, but I recommend freezing without the topping. When you are ready to bake, remove the balls from the freezer, let sit for 30 minutes, pre-heat the oven, then roll into topping. You can also freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before serving.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar is required for this recipe. Please see the text of the post for more information.
- Extra Egg Yolk: To bring this dough together so it isn’t quite as crumbly use 1 large egg, plus 1 extra large egg yolk. I’ve been doing this recently and the snickerdoodles taste even softer, moister, and richer.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Easy to make, loved the result. Thank you
so good
I tried these before and they tuner out amazing, but this time I want to make the dough about 12 hours in advance, and I was wondering if I could just store the dough in the fridge until I need to use it?
Absolutely. The snickerdoodle cookies may not spread as much, so pressing them down will be especially helpful. You could even press down the shaped balls before baking, instead of after.
I’ve used this recipe multiple times, and the cookies always turned out amazing. This time they were tough and heavy. Can you tell me what I did wrong?
Hi Mariah, my best guess is that there was too much flour. Did you weigh your flour, or spoon and level it, or simply scoop it with the measuring cup?
I scooped it with the measuring cup; I’ll make sure to spoon and level it next time. Thanks for the help!
Loved this recipe. The cookies were soft and delicious. First time making snicker doodle cookies.
I love them!
Do you do gluten free ? As in snickerdoodles
Hi Lana, we haven’t tested these with gluten free flour but let us know if you try it!
i loved tis recepie!
I made this recipe exactly as instructed and they taste very… off. Would not recommend
Can you stuff this cookie with cheesecake or caramel?
Hi Misty, you could try stuffing these with the filling from these red velvet stuffed cookies, or here is our recipe for soft caramel snickerdoodles. Let us know what you try!
Favorite snickerdoodles of all time, like most of the cookies on your website!! I just got your cookie book. Thank you for all of these recipes!!
I’ve made this recipe several times and they’re always a hit!
Question — if I want to make these a bit smaller and roll them into 20g balls, would you recommend lowering the oven temp or just shortening the baking time?
Hi Teresa, we’re so glad to hear that! We would just shorten the bake time a bit. Keep a close eye on them!
Hello, I was wondering if you could use vegetable oil as an alternative for the butter
Hi Lila, butter creamed with sugar makes up the base of this cookie recipe and it is impossible to cream oil with sugar. Best to stick with butter for these cookies.
Trying this later…I guess I don’t need to chill the dough?
Hi Loo, correct—no chilling required for this recipe.
Followed the recipe and got lovely, soft, pillowy cookies. Just right to give to the musicians at tonight’s concert!
I’ve never made snickerdoodles before. These were so easy and taste amazing! I haven’t had one of these in so long I forgot how good they are. I did add two whole eggs. I made mega sized cookies. My husband loved them so much!
These are BEST Snickerdoodles! Love the cinnamon in the cookie dough.
My cookies didn’t stay as puffy as yours did in the pictures. Any recommendations on what could cause them to be slightly less puffy? They aren’t flat…was just looking for more puff! Otherwise exceptional cookie!
Hi Amy, is your baking soda fresh? We find it starts to lose its power after about 3 months, even if not technically expired. We’re glad you enjoyed them!
I’ve made this recipe so many times, I have a large family that gobbles them up so fast, and they go even faster when I bring them to work. I make only one change to the recipe,
I use brown sugar, usually 2/3 brown and 2/3 white. So delicious.
So I just tried making the Brown Butter Snickerdoodles from your cookbook, and the first round came out of the oven a little flat, but still beautiful. The second and third rounds came out crackled and uneven. Do you know what might have caused this? Would using this recipe next time fix it? If so, how would you recommend adding brown butter to it, seeing as I loved the brown butter flavor. Greatly appreciate your help!
Hi Kate, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. This post on how to prevent cookies from spreading will be helpful for pinpointing what caused the cookies to go flat. A bit of cracking on the top is normal for snickerdoodle cookies. When you say they were uneven, were the edges uneven? If so, you can use a spoon to help shape them like we do when making chocolate chip cookies. If the entire batch of cookies seemed to bake unevenly, you can simply rotate your pan part way through bake time to help promote even baking (many ovens have hot spots). Hope this helps!
Followed this recipe to a T, and made the best snickerdoodles-EVER! My bonus son’s mom is a professional, and I WOWED him.
Would you recommend these cookies to make sandwiches with? I’m thinking of using the frosting from the snickerdoodle cupcake recipe but not sure if that would be too heavy or too sickly. Thank you!
Hi Erin, yes, this is a great cookie for that! You can use that cinnamon buttercream from the snickerdoodle cupcakes, or even the maple glaze from these maple brown sugar cookies. Hope you love them!
My family loved these so much,they had snickerdoodles before for I never made them till now,we did not change anything for the recipe was great the way it was first batch gone before cleanup so made another your recipe now has a place in my cookie notebook for favorite family cookies we will be trying all of your cookies.:)
Soft and the perfect balance of cinnamon sugar! They were a HIT!
Perfect even without the extra egg.
Absolutely perfect, needs nothing more. The best snickerdoodles ever and my new favorite!
I’m addicted to these cookies! I am making too many batches…too often! lol! Getting ready to make some more right now! This recipe is AMAZING!!!!!! I’ve never made, what I would call, the “perfect” cookie…until now! Thank you very much for the tips! I’ve only recently started cooking and baking on a regular basis. I never really knew how before. Anyways…I’ll have to see if you have a ‘no bake oatmeal, chocolate, peanut butter’ that’s my other latest addiction!
SOOO good. I made 30 and they were gone in 2 days
My family and neighbors defined these as the best snickerdoodles they’ve ever had. I make the mini version referenced in the snickerdoodle cupcake recipe.
For a delicious twist, split the cinnamon 1/2 & 1/2 with cardamom and split the vanilla 1/2 & 1/2 with digestible orange essential oil.
I know it says not to use shortening here, but what are my best options for making these dairy free?
Hi Sasha, you can try a dairy free buttery stick such as Earth Balance brand. We have not tested this so we are unsure of the results. Let us know if you try them!
My family loves these snickerdoodles, I have been trying to make them for an new neighbor and they disappear before I can even get the whole batch out of the oven. My daughter requires a dairy free diet so I use Country Crock avacado plant butter sticks and they still turn out just perfect. Thank you Sally, I love all of your recipes, I rarely use any other anymore.