The best soft, chewy, and thick Snickerdoodle Recipe, with tender centers and perfectly crisp edges!
author’s note
Soft, Chewy, Perfect Snickerdoodles Every Single Time!
Snickerdoodles have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. They were one of the first recipes I ever shared here because I’ve truly been making them my whole life.
After years of making them for every event and family get-together, I can honestly say I’ve never had a Snickerdoodle better than this version. They’re thick and chewy with the softest center and those crisp cinnamon edges that make them irresistible.
My brother-in-law is a Snickerdoodle superfan, and this is his all-time favorite cookie. He requests a batch every time he visits, and he swears these are the best he’s ever had. I have to agree. This is the recipe I’m proudest to share.
Snickerdoodle Recipe Ingredients
| Ingredient | What to Know |
|---|---|
| Butter | Opt for unsalted for better salt control. |
| Sugar | A mix of white and brown sugar gives the best sweetness. |
| Egg + Egg Yolk | Adds richness and keeps the cookies soft. |
| Vanilla Extract | Boosts overall flavor. |
| Flour | Measure carefully for the right consistency. |
| Cream of Tartar | Gives the classic tang and helps the dough set. |
| Baking Soda | Helps the cookies rise. |
| Cinnamon | Adds warm flavor in both the dough and the coating. |
Quick Tip
My favorite way to bake? Simply use a kitchen scale to measure ingredients in grams. It eliminates guesswork that can come with less precise measuring using cups.
Featured Comment
I rarely review/leave comments, but I felt compelled to with this recipe.
I have searched high and low for THE snickerdoodle recipe. The recipe that creates soft, but slightly crisp and moist, but not underbaked snickerdoodles. This is that recipe. I will never make any other snickerdoodle recipe again!
Thank you for sharing!
– Kate
How To Make This Snickerdoodle Recipe (Tips)
- Butter: Hot butter leads to greasy cookies. Melt it fully, then let it cool to room temp.
- Chill the dough: This keeps the cookies thick with chewy centers.
- Roll tall cookie dough balls: Taller shapes spread into the perfect thickness.
- Generously coat in cinnamon sugar: More coating means better caramelized edges.
- Slightly underbake: Bake on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. The centers should look soft when you pull them out; they finish cooking on the tray.
- Shape while warm: Press the edges inward with a spatula for perfectly round cookies.
Storage
- Store Snickerdoodle recipe in an airtight container at room temperature for 2-3 days.
- Freeze dough balls, place them on a baking sheet until firm, then transfer to a sealed container or freezer bag. Bake straight from the freezer as needed, adding extra a few extra minutes to the baking process.
Variations
Love this Snickerdoodle Recipe? Try my Pumpkin Snickerdoodles or Caramel Snickerdoodles!
More Delicious Cookies:
Snickerdoodle Recipe
Video
Equipment
- Food scale optional, but recommended!
- Sheet pan (15" x 10")
- Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
Ingredients
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter melted and cooled to room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup light brown sugar firmly packed
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2-3/4 cups flour see note 1
- 1-1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a large microwave-safe bowl, melt butter, then let cool to room temperature. Ensure it’s not hot to avoid greasy cookies.
- In a large bowl, combine flour, cream of tartar, salt, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon.
- In a separate bowl, mix melted and cooled butter with granulated and brown sugar until well emulsified. Add whole egg, egg yolk, and vanilla extract. Whisk until smooth.
- Mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients until just combined, ensuring there are no streaks of flour. Avoid overmixing. Cover dough tightly and refrigerate 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 325°F. Stir together cinnamon sugar coating ingredients in a small bowl.
- Portion dough into 45-gram balls (2 packed tablespoons) and shape them into tall balls. Roll dough balls generously in cinnamon-sugar mixture. Return shaped dough balls to the fridge for 15–20 minutes or until they firm up.
- Place dough balls on a sheet pan lined with parchment or a silicone baking mat with ample spacing (about 6 at a time); bake 9–12 minutes. Avoid overbaking; slight under-baking is ideal! After baking, if any cookies have uneven edges, gently press them inward with a metal spatula. Remove tray from oven and let cookies rest on the sheet 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Snickerdoodle Recipe FAQs
Yes, up to 72 hours. Keep covered in the fridge and bake as needed.
No, not for this recipe. The cookies spread too much without it.
Yes. Everything doubles cleanly.
Too much flour or overbaking. Use a scale and watch the bake time closely.
These cookies look great ! How long do they keep for ?
We’ve eaten these snickerdoodles up to a week after we made them and they were still great! I’ve also frozen them before and then defrosted them when we were ready to eat them! I hope you enjoy! 🙂
This recipe is delicious! We love more cinnamon than other recipes. My kids are begging for more as I write this.
I followed the recipe exactly – cooled, weighed, cylinder towers, baking, etc. they needed 15 min of cooking with 6 to a pan and batch made 18 cookies, perfectly measured at 1.7 oz.
First pan did fall quite a bit. We live in high elevation in Utah. Do we need a high elevation adjustment?
Thanks for s well thought out and tested recipe! I’m going to try cylinder tower approach with other cookie recipes.
My son requested snickerdoodles for his birthday treat to share with his class. I made them 1.5 oz each and shaped them like you suggested. 10 minutes was not long enough. Even after standing for 2 minutes they fell apart when I tried to remove them from they cookie sheet. For the second round, I made 1 oz and crossed my fingers.
There are definitely differences in ovens and how baked you want the cookies so definitely leave them in for longer as desired 🙂 Thanks for the feedback Mindy!
Definitely the best cookies ever but I have to say that it does take way longer to bake them more like 15 or more min, I even weighed each cookie to 1.7oz but still way longer than suggested . Overall comes out great if baked longer. Next time I will try 350 degrees oven to see if I can decrease the time. One question though, can I use baking powder instead of baking soda and cream of tartar since it’s basically the same thing. But how much is my question?
Yay! SO happy to hear these cookies were a hit ? Thanks for the comment Lucy! ? I haven’t experimented with just using baking powder in this recipe, so I’m not sure the exact recommendation to give you without further testing; I wish I could be of more help!
I’ve currently got the dough chilling in the fridge and I have one question: can I use aluminium foil instead of parchment paper? So excited to make these cookies!
I would not recommend foil (cooking spray and plain sheet pan is better than foil)! I hope you love these cookies 🙂
Oh! these look so good. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
You bet! Hope you enjoy 🙂
I just made these cookies and they are very good, but I am wondering why you show them as cilinders on the cookie sheet before baking. I did this with the first pan and they all fell over, some fell off of the cooking sheet and landed on the bottom of the oven. The next sheet I made them round and rolled them in the cinnamon and sugar, and they came out very good.
I’m not sure what went wrong, but this is the worst batch of cookies I’ve ever made. The flavor was okay, but the bake was a nightmare. I bake a lot of cookies; I’m definitely not new to this. I followed all directions and even weighed the dough balls. I only made two minor changes in procedure— #1: I chilled overnight instead of 30 minutes and #2: I used a silicone baking sheet instead of parchment paper.
The measured dough balls seemed HUGE, but since I weighed them, I assumed it would be fine. Looking at the photo, it appears you have a row of 4, so I put the standard 12 cookies on the pan.
I opened the oven to check them and had one giant cookie, practically floating in butter, that had slid to one end of the pan. I only put half on the second pan and that seemed to help slightly. In the end, I transferred every cookie to parchment paper and baked again another 5+minutes. They were still dripping with butter and falling apart after the additional bake time. They were giant, flat, buttery pancakes with no rise. The flavor wasn’t bad, just over saturated with butter.
Are you certain you had all the right measurements? Only 1 cup of butter and enough flour, etc.? I’ve never had any issue with these cookies being oversaturated in butter! Also, I’d try 8-9 cookies on a sheet pan at a time. I’d love to troubleshoot with you, these cookies are one of our favorites and we make them all the time!
I followed the recipe step by step but had to refrigerate the dough overnight. Needless to say… this recipe is thebomb.com
Amazing recipe, everyone is in heaven this morning ?
Yayyy!!! I’m so happy to hear this!! Thanks! 🙂
Would these hold up if half dipped in chocolate?
I think they’d be great! 🙂 They’re pretty soft, so they could break off when being dipped; it might be easier to drizzle chocolate over.