A classic holiday cookie, Easy and Delicious Snickerdoodles are a great option to make during the holidays and all year round!
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These easy and delicious snickerdoodles are super easy to make, coming together in a snap, and they’re the perfect cookie to start your big baking days off with, because you can work on other things while the dough chills.
Snickerdoodles have basically all of the elements of a sugar cookie, but the cream of tartar is what adds that little boost of flavor that we all know is the backbone of a traditional snickerdoodle.
Recipe Notes
Flavor: these are traditional cookies with no extra flavorings, but they do have that little extra oomph of tang that’s provided by the cream of tartar.
Texture: the cookies are thick and chewy with a delicious crunch from the cinnamon sugar coating.
Ease: these are super easy to make. You just mix all the ingredients together in a bowl, then let it chill. Scoop the dough out in even amounts, roll into a ball, and then coat the ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture. You’ll end up with perfectly round cookies every time!
Ingredient List
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- All-purpose flour
- Cream of tartar
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Cinnamon

Tips and Tricks
The cookies will and should look a little underdone when you take them out of the oven. This is totally normal and is what you want. They continue to firm up as they sit on the tray, and slightly under baking them is what keeps them soft.
If you don’t have cream of tartar, you can instead use 2 teaspoons of baking powder in place of BOTH the cream of tartar and baking soda. It will affect the final taste and texture of the cookie just a tiny bit, but they will still be absolutely delicious.
To Soften Butter Quickly
- Boil a pot of water and place a wrapped stick of butter on a plate, standing up on its end.
- Once the water is boiling, pour some of it in a water glass, and let the glass sit for 3 minutes to get really hot.
- Pour the water out, and place the glass over the stick of butter, and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Repeat until the butter is fully softened. This will get you pretty softened butter in about 20 minutes total.
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How to Prep Ahead
The cookie dough needs to rest in the fridge for at least two hours before baking but can rest for up to 24-36 hours without any adverse baking reactions. So, if you wanted to, you could make the dough ahead of time and cross a thing off of your list. I typically use that chilling time to work on getting other doughs started.
Storing Leftovers:
Store the leftover cookies in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 3-4 days or in the fridge for up to a week.
To Freeze:
To freeze the dough, complete all the steps through rolling the chilled dough into balls and coating them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Then place the dough balls on a baking tray lined with parchment and place the tray in the freezer for 1 hour. After the hour is up, you can place all the dough balls in a freezer bag and freeze for up to two months. You can bake the cookies from frozen – just add 2-4 minutes to the baking time.
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Easy and Delicious Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 8 ounces two sticks of unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 ¾ cups sugar divided
- 2 large eggs
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and 1 ½ cups of the sugar for 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each addition.
- Add the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and beat to combine.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least two hours - up to 36 hours.
- Preheat your oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment or foil.
- In a small bowl, mix the remaining ¼ cup of sugar with the cinnamon.
- Once the dough has chilled, scoop even sized balls of dough out, and roll them in your hands to make a ball.
- Coat the dough in the cinnamon sugar mixture, and place 12 dough balls per sheet pan.
- Bake, one tray at a time, for 10-12 minutes, checking after 10 to make sure the cookies aren't overbaking.
- Let then cookies cool on the tray for 10 minutes then remove to a cooling rack.
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