Soft, fluffy, and buttery cookies with slightly crispy edges and a cinnamon sugar cookie coating.
We are continuing the Christmas Yumminess Countdown with one of my favorite all time cookies!!
I have tested out many snickerdoodle variations and this is by far my favorite. Are you a soft cookie person or a crispy cookie person? Is it weird to classify yourself by cookie preference? Well even if it is I am a soft cookie person … if I wanted something crispy, I’d go eat some potato chips. So if you are a soft cookie kind of person, you will adore these. The other snickerdoodle recipes I tried out were crispier and crumblier.
Sometimes these cookies wrinkle a little in the oven…I don’t know why but sometimes they look a little elderly coming out of the oven. It makes them look crispy but when you bite into them, they are seriously the softest cookies I have ever had.
There are two tricks with this recipe.
1. Do not over work your dough! When mixing in the flour, stop once the flour is incorporated. Once you have formed the balls of dough and rolled them in sugar, leave them alone!! Do not decide you want smaller or bigger cookies and start adjusting their size. The more you play with the dough the crispier a cookie you will have because you are breaking down and melting the butter in your hands.
2. They spread a ridiculous amount in the oven. That little 1-inch ball of dough turns into a 3 inch diameter cookie. I have 12 x 18 inch pans and only put 8 cookies on each tray and stager them. If you don’t give them plenty of room you’ll end up with a pan of snickerdoodle blondies…which wouldn’t be so horrible, but it’s not the plan!
… and voilà!!
Happy snickerdoodle eatin’!
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup salted butter, softened
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
- 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
- In a small bowl, combine flour, soda, and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the brown sugar and granulated sugar together with an electric mixer.
- Add the butter and beat until you have a consistent paste with no butter lumps.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until it is light and fluffy and looks like cake batter.
- Gradually add the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Do not overmix!
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- Mix the granulated sugar and cinnamon together for the topping.
- Shape the dough into 1- inch balls* and roll in the topping mixture. The dough is quite gooey so you might need to wash your hands after every 8 cookies or so.
- Place the cookies on ungreased cookie sheets with plenty of room to spread.**
- Bake 2 sheets at a time for 16-20 minutes, rotating the pans half way through.
- Immediately transfer to a cooling rack.
**I have 12 x 18 inch baking sheets and put 8 cookies on each and stager them.
This recipe is adapted from Mrs. Fields’ (aka my best friend) cookie book.
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