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
These are AMAZING!!!!!!!
I definitely wouldn’t describe this dough as “thick” at best it’s kinetic sand. Cookies ended up very small but did have a decent thickness to them. Hopefully they taste decent but I will NOT be using this recipe ever again.
Mine turned out salty..I followed the instructions to a tee…I did however use Margerine instead of butter…threw them in the garbage…I am not a good baker but I try
I just made the Snickerdoodle. They are good but my mistake was I added chopped pecans and coconut (my husband loves nuts n coconut, if I want to make him really happy I have to add chocolate chips). I won’t bake them like that again it totally changed the flavor. They’re good but not Snickerdoodle.
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Can not wait to bake snickerdoodles….gonna surprise my husband as it was a favorite when he was growing up. Whe ill be fun to see his expression when he finds them. Thanks for such an easy recipe to follow. Can not wait to smell these delites baking.
Thanks for sharing
Could this dough minus the cinnamon be use for thumbprint cookies
Hi Jo, we worry that these cookies won’t keep the thumbprint shape as well. We have a few different thumbprint cookie recipes on our website, if you’re insterested in browsing. Let us know if you give any of them a try!
Good
Used cold, direct from the fridge butter. Scooped dough balls into equal measurements. Baking soda and cream of tartar both fresh. Didn’t overmix my butter/sugar. Chilled the dough and put in oven without bringing to room temp. Used a quality cookie sheet with parchment paper. And the cookies are flat. They have great flavor, I was just disappointed when they all deflated while cooling.
Hi Gina, did you allow your butter to come to room temperature before using in the recipe? If you used cold butter directly from the refrigerator, it would be quite difficult to properly cream it with the sugar, a key step for these cookies to bake properly. You can learn more about how to cream butter and sugar here, and more about what room temperature butter really means here. Hope this helps for your next batch!
Can these be made with gluten free flour?
Hi Kay, we haven’t tested these with gluten free flour but let us know if you try it.
Yum! Soft, fluffy, & delicious. I always jump to Sally’s Baking Addiction when I’m looking for a new recipe, and I’m never disappointed. As usual, this recipe was perfect. Clear, concise directions and perfect results ❤️ my first time making snickerdoodles, and now I feel like a gold medal champion because these are easy and delicious!
Very easy and tasty recipe. I’ve made it a few times. Sometimes I use Habanero sugar with the cinnamon sugar and make a hot and spicy cookie. Spicy goes over well with the adults who remember these, but like the twist.
Today I made the Snickerdoodles, read the recipe, followed the instructions, the dough looked just like the picture, baked them exactly 10 minutes and was SO disappointed when they didn’t puff up and turn out like the picture. There was nothing soft about them, very crispy and crunchy! I’d like to know what I did wrong. My cream of tarter may have been old. Could that have been the problem? Any ideas would be appreciated. I’ve made other cookie recipes of Sally’s and had wonderful results.
Hi Karen, We are sorry you had trouble with this recipe. If you try them again, using fresh cream of tartar could help. Was your butter super soft or melted in the slightest? Make sure it’s softened, but not greasy at all. Letting it sit at room temperature for about 1 hour is usually plenty. Adding more flour can also help, such as another 1/4 cup or 31g. Let us know if you try that.
Similar experience here: followed the recipe exactly and mine came out flat. Soft and taste great, but definitely NOTHING like the pictures.
I made these last Christmas and they were a huge hit! My son’s favorite. It’s his birthday tomorrow and wanted to make these for him but only have salted butter. Can I use that and just omit or decrease the amount of salt for these cookies. Thanks so much!
Hi Pam, if using salted butter, reduce the added salt to 1/8 teaspoon. Hope you enjoy the cookies!
Thanks for the quick response!! I’m in business!
Hi, Sally & crew. Do you have any suggestions for a vegan substitute for the egg & egg yolk? Thanks.
Hi Sarah, We haven’t tested this recipe with an egg substitute, but let us know if you try anything. Here are all of our egg-free recipes if you are interested!
These snickerdoodles are absolute perfection!! Thanks for a great recipe.
Hi Team!
These cookies are amazing and I’ve made them time and time again! I’ve been requested to make these for a crowd and am wondering if I would be able to double the recipe successfully? Or would you suggest me making 2 or 3 separate batches?
Thank you!
Hi Asha, you can double this recipe. So glad you love it!
Everything I have made from your recipes have been excellent, just keep them coming!
I’ve loved snickerdoodles since I was a kid and this is by far the best recipe I’ve found! I’ve made it multiple times and the cookies always come out great. So soft with a little bite. Perfect just as written!
Hi they taste great but came out looking flat is there something I can do differently?
Hi Brianna, we have a helpful post here with tips to prevent cookies from spreading. Hope this helps for next time!
Your snickerdoodle recipe is the best ever. I have always had trouble with snickerdoodles but these are no fail! Love them.
Thank you so much, Liz! Glad you love these.
I have never left a review on a recipe before, but I just have to on this one. This is by far my favourite cookie recipe of all time. I’ve made it 3 times and each batch is better than the last! My most recent batch I decided to experiment with using a muffin tray to get a really uniform size and thickness and they turned out perfectly – slightly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside! Delicious!
If you follow the instructions exactly these come out perfect. What else you can try is adding butterscotch chips to the dough now when I did this my texture wasn’t as perfect. I can’t tell if it was because the recipe needs to be altered to accomidate the chips or if i overloaded my mixer making a double batch or if I made some mistake. Either way they were still quite good with the mentioned modification
Wow these came out perfect! Super quick and easy, they taste wonderful and look great! I don’t like flat cookies, these did not disappoint! Thank you for sharing this recipe
These are a go to favorite cookie! Can you suggest the best way to make them larger? Would I need to alter the baking time and the recipe?
Hi Tammy, Larger cookies will need a longer baking time, but we’re unsure of exactly how much time they’ll need.
This is the first time Ive made and tried snickerdoodle. I love it. My husband loves it too.
I’m wondering if I can use 2 whole eggs instead of 1 egg and 1 york.
Thank you for the recipe!
Hi Anh, it’s best to use the 1 egg + 1 egg yolk. They will be less chewy and more cakey if you use 2 whole eggs.
These cookies are wonderfully cinammon-y and delicious! Will make again and again!
What would you suggest for high elevation cooking? 8,500’
Hi Peggy, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Followed the recipe perfectly. They are dry, too puffy and flavorless. Very disappointed.
I was referred to this recipe after I finished most of the cookies that my coworker brought to work. It gives me heavenly cookies every time that I have to physically stop myself from eating all the cookies up in one sitting.
One question, Sally — could you please provide the gram for 1 large egg and 1 large egg yolk?
Hi Jenna, a large egg typically weighs between 50–60 grams, and a large egg yolk is typically between 17–20g.
The perfect snickerdoodle cookie. I followed the recipe exactly as written.