Description
Soft, chewy snickerdoodle cookies made with brown butter for incredible nutty flavor depth, coated in cinnamon sugar with that classic tangy bite.
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 2 teaspoons cream of tartar (don’t even think about skipping this)
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter (this is getting the brown butter treatment)
- 1 ¼ cups packed dark brown sugar
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 egg yolk (trust me on the extra yolk)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt (weird but necessary)
For Rolling/Coating:
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
Put butter in a saucepan over medium heat and start whisking. It’ll melt, then foam up like crazy, then suddenly start smelling like heaven and turning golden brown. You’ll see little brown bits at the bottom – that’s liquid gold right there. The second it smells nutty and looks amber, pull it off heat and dump it in a bowl. Don’t walk away during this part – burnt butter tastes awful and there’s no saving it.
Wait until that brown butter cools down but stays liquid – about 10 minutes. Add both sugars and mix for a minute until it looks like wet sand. Crack in your egg and extra yolk, vanilla, and that weird tablespoon of Greek yogurt. Beat everything together until smooth and creamy. It should smell incredible at this point.
Mix flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, cinnamon, and salt in another bowl. Make sure there aren’t any clumps of cream of tartar hiding – biting into a pocket of it is like eating chalk.
Dump dry ingredients into your wet mixture and stir just until combined. Don’t beat the life out of it – overworked dough makes tough cookies. Cover and stick it in the fridge for at least 2 hours. I know it’s torture waiting, but cold dough doesn’t spread out into pancakes when it hits the oven.
Heat oven to 350°F. Mix your coating sugar with cinnamon in a small bowl. Scoop about 2 tablespoons of cold dough, roll it into a ball, and coat it completely in cinnamon sugar. Don’t be stingy – that coating creates the best crispy exterior. Space them 2 inches apart on your baking sheets.
Bake 8-12 minutes until edges look set but centers still seem soft. This killed me the first few times because they look underdone, but they’re not. They finish cooking on the hot pan.
Leave them on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before moving to a wire rack. Moving them too soon = broken cookies and tears.
Notes
Don’t mess with the Greek yogurt. I tried everything – sour cream, regular yogurt, cream cheese, even mayonnaise once (don’t ask). Nothing gives the same texture. Cream of tartar lives in the spice aisle and costs about three dollars. Buy it. Use it. These aren’t snickerdoodles without it.
The cinnamon sugar coating isn’t just for looks – it creates this amazing contrast between crispy outside and soft inside. Roll every single ball completely.
- Prep Time: 2 hours 40 minutes (includes chilling)
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American