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
I can’t wait to make these, but have been “hooked” on your browned butter chocolate chip cookies. How would I adjust this recipe to use browned butter? Thanks ahead for your advice.
Hi Jennifer, You can brown the butter here but we recommend additional liquid (milk). Probably just 1-2 Tablespoons to make up for the lost moisture. Make sure the brown butter has solidified so it can be creamed.
Sally I’ve made your caramel snickerdoodles many times. My daughter away at college requested “the cookie with the caramel inside”. I was wondering if this puffy snickerdoodle would work with a caramel inside. What do you think?
Hi Jodie, We think you will love these Soft Caramel Snickerdoodles: https://route-span.live/soft-caramel-snickerdoodles/%3C/p%3E
That’s the recipe I’ve been making, very delicious. But I’ve been wondering how these puffy snickerdoodles would work with caramel in them.
We haven’t tested caramel inside this recipe but let us know if you do!
I have used another recipe of yours and love them both! I have never made snickerdoodles before and these are great! I love the softness and that they are indeed puffy and not flat. Thank you for sharing your talents for us all to try.
I made this recipe with a gluten free 1:1 flour, & the cookies were delicious & beautiful. I also used more cinnamon in my topping mixture because I love cinnamon. Thanks for the great recipe.
These were delicious! I’d like to make them again and use this as a base for M&M cookies (omit the cinnamon sugar). Do you think that work?
Hi Julie, You can add 1-1.5 cups of M&Ms into this cookie dough after you combine the wet and dry ingredients without making any other changes. Let us know if you try anything!
These are so delicious! I made them on a random Sunday night so I could have them for my lunches throughout the week and I am obsessed! They’re so yummy! The snickerdoodle’s I usually eat are thin and kinda crispy but these are so fluffy. Thanks so much for the recipe!
Can I use caster sugar instead of granulated (white) sugar?
Such a yummy recipe, whether browner or a bit paler, they’re chewy and delicious either way.
That should be fine here, Emmy. Enjoy!
Nice and soft! Wish I had more than one tsp of cream of tartar on-hand, but they still tasted great replacing the second tsp with baking powder.
These are some of the best snickerdoodles I’ve had! Super fun and easy to make, too. Thank you!
These cookies were a huge hit! My family loved them and ate them all within a day. Definitely recommend.
Not thick at all
These were so easy and quick to make i replaced cream of tartar and baking soda for baking powder and it was fine it took like 15 minutes to bake and it was still a little doughy but overall it was so simple and so so good!
Just wowed my husband’s work colleagues with these! For 1 1/2 batch, I used 2 eggs plus the extra egg yolk. Perfection! Thanks!
Hello, I plan to makes these today after I buy the cream of tartar this morning. I don’t use dairy products. Can I use dairy free margarine? Thanks so much.
Hi Tolsa, We don’t recommend margarine but 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 kids demand these constantly. Super easy to make, super hard to mess up. Just a great recipe.
They were more cake like than cookies which wasn’t a bad thing but I was looking for more traditional texture
Help! Why did my dough come out sticky and unmoldable?
These cookies are fantastic! The texture is wonderful! I did change one thing on my second go – for the topping I reduced sugar and added cinnamon, so that I used two tablespoons each. For us spice lovers out there, the ratios in the recipe are a bit off.
I just made these for the first time (and my very first cookie from your website) and WOW!!! They are amazing!!! So soft with a little bit of chewy in the center. Kid approved, so they are going with us to our Christmas gathering! Thanks so much!
For some reason the bottoms of my cookies almost burn a little. Any idea how to keep the bottoms from burning. I have my convention oven to 375 for 10 min.
Hi Justus! You can try moving your baking sheet away from the heat source in your oven. Also, we recommend using conventional instead of convection settings on your oven if you have the choice. If you do use convection settings for baking, lower your temperature by 25 degrees F and keep in mind that things may still take less time to bake.
Double the baking sheets, one inside the other.
Hi Sally,
Is it possible to sub (even partially) with Almond flour?
Thanks
Linda
Hi Linda, We have not tested these with gluten free flour. If you would like to try it you can try an all purpose 1:1 gluten free flour, we don’t recommend almond flour as it has very different properties. Let us know if you try!
Just made my first batch and I love this recipe!!!!! May roll less sugar next time but the cinnamon is wonderful!!!!! Cooking the 10-11 minutes is perfect.
Is it possible to freeze the cookies once you cook them? If so, recommendations on how?
Hi Kathy, You can freeze the baked cookies for up to 3 months. Check out this post for tips on Make-Ahead Baking and Freezing!
Very good snickerdoodle recipe. I will cut back a wee bit on the sugar next time but delicious all the same 🙂
Just wondering how to reduce the sugar amount ??
Hi, is the oven temperature and cooking times the same for a fan assisted oven? I’ve made these many times before, but we now have a fan assisted oven rather than a conventional oven. I don’t want to waste any! Everyone rely on me making these as Christmas gifts each year they love hem so much haha!
Hi Emma, We test and write all of our recipes with a conventional oven. If you use convection settings (fan-forced) for baking, the general rule is to lower your temperature by 25°F. Additionally, keep in mind that due to increased airflow in convection ovens, recipes usually take less time to bake.
I somehow wound up with 5 dozen cookies from one batch ♀️
I made this exact recipe with my son for his schools cookie baking contest and it won first place for best tasting!! Out of over 2 dozen entries! Delicious
Hi Sally,
I made your soft and thick Snickerdoodle recipe and it is my favorite! My daughter, on the other hand, remembers (and prefers) a snickerdoodle recipe I used in the past that was a more chewy, and not so thick. No idea where that recipe wound up. Would you happen to have another version that is flatter/chewier?
Thank you for your blog and always fool-proof recipes!
Hi Plyllis, We are so happy you enjoyed the snickerdoodles! This recipe for Soft Caramel Snickerdoodles is a bit more chewy – you can skip the caramel center if desired.
Hi Sally, I do also remember just a classic snickerdoodle recipe on your website, but after looking I can no longer find it. Do you know if it is still available?
These cookies turn out amazing and fluffy every time!! The best snickerdoodle recipe I’ve tried.
My first 3 batches turned out amazing, all thick, puffy, and just perfect. My fourth batch tasted amazing but they were flat and didn’t puff up. What could have happened?
Hi Brandy! Here’s our tips to prevent cookies from spreading.
This Soft & Thick Snickerdoodles Recipe is fantastic. My son’s favorite cookie. I made it using a 1987 bottle of Cream of Tartar and they still turned out great!