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!
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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 topping: Combine the granulated sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.
- 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.
- 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’ve made these cookies numerous times and they are delicious!
Great tip on the room temperature method for eggs and butter.
Easily my favorite cookie!
I made this recipe a couple of weeks ago, but I added toasted pecans. OMG, that really took this recipe to another level. I got so many compliments, like never before. Thanks again, Sally!
Wow! Super Sigma
Hey Sally! Please reply to this if you can!!! I made this recipe and used 3 cups of flour maybe it was a typo idk, but my dough was sooooo crumbly and stiff! I couldnt even roll up sugar so I added some oil and water and now they taste horrible! Im superr duper sad. I also leveled my ingredients.
Hi Aba, 3 cups of flour is correct. Did you scoop or spoon the flour into the cup before leveling? Be sure to spoon and level, as scooping can pack the flour in and make the dough crumbly and dry.
I scooped it! oopsies.. Ill definetly try again. Thank you.
My first time making snickerdoodles. I was confused about the cream of tartar, but thank goodness I did exactly as you said. It makes them so moreish and not oversweet. We can’t stop eating them. Amazing recipe and super easy – didn’t have to make any adjustments and there were no issues.
I wouldn’t recommend flattening these out of the oven. They were fluffier on the batch I didn’t. Next time I will make a little bigger as I think they would have been ever softer (8-9 min in my oven at the size recommended).
ok so i made these once great the seccond time dry and did not cook do you know what happened
Hi Maddie, after you mix the wet and dry ingredients together the dough may seem dry and crumbly. But when you roll the cookie dough into balls it should come together and bake up soft and fluffy. Over-baking and using too much flour are the two typical culprits for dry cookies. Make sure you aren’t over-measuring your flour; weigh it with a kitchen scale or use the spoon and level method. And err on the side of under-baking, as the cookies continue to set as they cool. Hope this helps for next time!
Hi Sally! My cookie dough wasn’t coming out the way I wanted it to come put as. The texture was a little sticky still. Do I freeze or refrigerate it?
these where delish i made a batch and my hole family loved them
YUM! Easy, tangy and sweet. These were devoured in a night!
I tried these out but decided to add in caramel inside the cookie, similar to how the caramel snicker doodle recipe has since this recipe had better reviews and oh my gosh these were delicious. The caramel with the cinnamon went so perfectly and the texture was lovely. I will definitely make these again. Definitely recommend this.
Can I double this recipe? Thank you!
Hi Becky, yes, you can!
Hello, is it possible to make these into 5oz cookies? How long would I bake them for? And with this recipe, how many does it yield? Thank you
Hi Jess, you can make the cookies larger or smaller as needed. We’re unsure of the exact bake time and yield, so keep a close eye on them. Enjoy!
So I can’t get many of your cookie recipes to not spread including these. I’ve tried the suggestions on your site. Nothing seems to help. Any other ideas?
Hi Rebekah, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. If it seems to be happening for several different recipes, could it be that your butter is too warm? The temperature of your butter can make a big difference, and room temperature butter is cooler than you may think. Be sure that you’re also spooning and leveling (or using a kitchen scale) to measure your flour. Otherwise, the flour could be under measured and cause more spreading. Let us know if we can help further!
These taste really good in vanilla ice cream.
I’m trying to convert my gluten free snickerdoodle recipe. What is the ratio of flour to leavening to butter to egg you speak of? I am working on perfecting my snickerdoodle, but they are just so flat and I can soften them with the bread in an airtight container, but I would love to have a nice thick and soft snickerdoodle like you have in this recipe. Gluten free baking can be so frustrating!!
Hi Amber! We wish we could help, but we do not have much experience with gluten free baking. The gluten free flour blends can be very different from all-purpose flour, so the ratios will likely take some experimenting. Sorry we can’t be of more help here!
I made these yesterday and definitely not complaints coming from my family, I left out the vanilla and cream of tartar but they still turned out absolutely beautiful so fluffy and light, my mum hates cookies and biscuits and yet she loved these so much!! Will definitely be making these again!
Snickerdoodles are my son’s favourite and they are so quick to make! Sometimes I add more spices to the sugar to roll them in, like the white chocolate chai spice snickerdoodles. I’ve never had the dough turn out crumbly, I find it odd that so many people did. It’s satisfying to give them a little press with the back of a measuring cup, they look so professional. If there’s extra cinnamon sugar, I sometimes sprinkle more on the cookies right when they come out of the oven.
These were amazing! My husband & father-in-law were convinced they didn’t like snickerdoodles. I had never had them before but wanted to try them. I made your recipe & now we all love them!
Great cookies! Made the dough a day ahead, stored in the fridge overnight. Took out to bring up to temp and then rolled and baked – turned out perfect. The whole family loved them.
Great recipe!
I love these cookies! I’ve made them twice— and they’re so tasty. But they don’t turn out thick. And I doing something wrong?
Hi Lisa, here’s our best tips to prevent cookies from spreading!
Strange question, but would it be possible to have the original recipe that was published in 2015? That version was definitely more cake-like and my husband absolutely adored it! Thanks!
Hi Danielle, the recipe hasn’t changed! Sometimes we update the photos in the post and make the recipe instructions more clear (like this update). If the actual recipe changes we will tell you what the changes are in the post. Hope this helps!
Wasn’t too happy with this recipe. They remind me of play dough. Why cinnamon in the dough and too dry
Love this recipe! I am recently gluten free and curious if anyone has made it with 1:1 gf flour, I miss these cookies!
Positively pillowy! These cookies are ridiculously soft and delicious. I did add maybe a teaspoon of milk–the dough needed just a touch of moisture. Otherwise, 100% faithful to the recipe. I’ve made these twice, and they went quickly both times. I took some to work and barely got them on the table before they disappeared. Great recipe!
Hi Sally! Can you tell me which brand of non sweetener would still make good cookies? You have great recipes!!
Hi Rita, We’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes. Thank you!
I love this reicpie. My in-laws even love it. Instead of butter i use lard. Makes them softer and yummier. I used the past two times I made them 🙂
I loved this recipe so much!
I love this so much I LOOOOve snickerdoodles so much
This recipe is a go to of mine! Big fan of it.
Would I be able to replace margarine instead of butter or maybe even vegi shortening?
Hi New baker, we don’t recommend margarine here. Margarine and shortening have a higher water content than butter and make baked goods spread more. You’ll also miss the buttery taste. We haven’t tested it, but a vegan butter may be a better substitute.