Snickerdoodles are one of my husband’s favorite cookies. And most recipes call for cream of tartar, which for whatever reason, is not something I always have on hand (or I do, but it’s expired … again).
So, this is my favorite soft and chewy snickerdoodle recipe without cream of tartar. I thought I’d share just in case anyone else out there has this same issue as me.
Related: Check out our dessert archive for more recipes.
The snickerdoodle recipe below will make one dozen cookies, but feel free to double, especially if you plan to freeze the dough in balls so you only have to bake a few at a time. This is usually what we do at my house. 🙂
Snickerdoodle Ingredients:
- Butter
- Granulated white sugar
- Brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Salt
How to Make Snickerdoodles:
Cream together the softened butter and sugars. Then stir in the egg and vanilla extract. In another bowl shift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet, until a dough forms.
Mix together the remaining sugar and cinnamon. Form balls from the dough and roll these in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place on a baking sheet and bake according to the recipe card below.
If you bake the dough chilled, they will spread some (as you can probably tell from the photo above and the final cookie photos), but when I bake straight from the freezer, they usually don’t spread as much. This makes the centers of these snickerdoodle cookies slightly more doughy, which I love. Happy baking, friends!
Love cookies? Check out these recipes!
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Soft and Chewy Molasses Cookies
- Butter Cookies-6 Ingredients
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Ingredients
- ⅓ cup butter (softened)
- ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon white sugar (granulated)
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 ¼ cup flour (all-purpose )
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a medium size bowl, cream together the softened butter, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and 1/4 cup brown sugar until well combined. Then, stir in the egg and vanilla extract until just combined.
- In another bowl, whisk together the 1 teaspoon cinnamon, flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir until a soft dough ball forms. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes or up to overnight.
- In a small bowl, stir together the 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Divide the chilled dough into 12 balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack just after baking.
Nutrition
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated, using Spoonacular, for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Nice recipe, first time I’ve ever had Snickerdoodles! Only complaints… Delicious, but a little bit too sweet. American recipes are a little tiring for anyone that doesn’t live in the USA. We don’t use Cups as a measurement and our ovens don’t know °F. And it’s hard to impossible to find American brown sugar. At least this recipe didn’t contain any cream of tartar (:
We are working on adding the non-US measurements to our most popular recipes. Thanks for the input!
10/10!!!!
This is by far one of the best snickerdoodle recipes ever! Tasty and soft…..mouth watering! Thank you for posting!
amazing cookies! love that it doesn’t require cream of tartar, everything else can be easily found in the pantry!
I made a vegan version of these and they were perfect! I just swapped regular butter for vegan butter and used a flax egg! They were so good I’m going to make them again soon! Thanks!
The moment I saw this recipe, I knew I had all the ingredients on hand, so I jumped up and whipped them right up… and proceeded to eat them all in two days! ? I did share a couple and the recipient loved them, too. I will say, I accidently put all the cinnamon in the cookie dough instead of dividing it to use 1 tsp to roll the dough in, but they still turned out awesome and I just rolled them in the sugar without adding cinnamon to that part. This will definitely be a recipe I use often… and I might just follow the directions next time. Thank you!
You can sub white vinegar for cream of tartar…same portion.
Just delicious ? Thank you for this recipe.
I tested it and my 3 year old daughter and I loved it !
Another international reader and grateful for this recipe because cream of tartar isn’t avalaible here at all!
Awesome! Thank you for the recipe!! This is usually a problem for me. Expired or out of cream of tartar! Glad I’m not alone!
Right? How is it seemingly always expired? So weird. I feel like I either need to find more ways to use cream of tartar or just slowly replace any recipes that call for it (like snickerdoodles often do) with ways to not need it. Ha
Swedish lady here with no idea what a snickerdoodle cookie is, but the name is amazing so kinda feel like I have to make theese now, ha! Thanks for opening my eyes to more american food and baking, I tried an apple pie recepie of yours last fall that was divine too ?
Now I must go look up the origin of ‘snickerdoodle’ cookies as I am not sure where the name comes from actually. Ha. But they are certainly one of those cookies that feels like a classic here in the states.