Snickerdoodles # 3

Snickerdoodles are the cookie that proves you don’t need chocolate or nuts to make something irresistible. Buttery dough balls rolled in cinnamon sugar, baked at high heat until they spread into soft, chewy rounds with crinkled tops and a sparkly, crunchy crust.

Cream of tartar is the secret ingredient. It reacts with the baking soda to give these cookies their signature slight tang and chewy texture. Without it, they’d just be sugar cookies with cinnamon on top.

Chill the dough before rolling. Warm dough spreads too fast in the oven and the cookies come out thin and crispy instead of thick and chewy.

Pro Tips

• Roll the dough balls generously in the cinnamon sugar. Every surface should be coated. The sugar caramelizes during baking and creates that distinctive crackled finish.
• Don’t flatten the balls before baking. They spread and flatten on their own in the oven. Pre-flattening makes them too thin.
• Pull them at 8 minutes if you want soft and chewy. At 10 minutes they’ll be crispier around the edges. They firm up as they cool.

Variations

• Add a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the dough for an extra layer of warmth.
• Roll in chai spice (cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves) instead of plain cinnamon sugar.
• Make them bigger: use a tablespoon-sized scoop instead of a teaspoon for bakery-style cookies.