Friends, it’s snickerdoodle season. If you didn’t know that snickerdoodles had a season, let me paint a picture for you: you’re coming inside on a blustery and colder-than-you’d-expected October day so you hadn’t dressed for it and you can’t wait to announce what my kids always laugh at me for saying when I walk through the door: “Well, that’s enough doing things for me today!” and forswear things like “being outside” and “hard pants” for the rest of the evening but what is this! What is this god-like aroma of buttery baked cinnamon sugar warmth that has permeated your senses? Is it a scented candle, i.e. the idea, but not the substance of a thing you love? No, it’s snickerdoodles. And you’re about to eat a warm one, which feels like climbing inside It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown while also, simultaneously, getting to be this dog. I’m not saying you cannot experience this sensory transcendency on a day in January or June, but it hits on a different, worldview-shifting, level when cold air is still a novel thing.
In 2009, exactly one day before I had my first kid, I shared a recipe for classic snickerdoodles, the old-fashioned kind with cream of tartar and baking soda instead of baking powder that cool to flatten a bit with crisp edges. They’re delicious, contest-winning, and going to stay in the archives exactly as they are. But, as I bit into them a few weeks ago, a vision crystalized in my head of what they’d be if they were, say, the mic drop of the snickerdoodle category, seven words I’m pretty sure nobody has had the impenitent cringe to string together before. A few weeks of tinkering later, they’re here and I can’t shut up about them. A few things set them apart:
- Thicker and more tender: They’re not cakey, but have an incredibly quiet bite yet softly crisp edges. They get that way the same way my confetti cookies do: with the addition of a little cream cheese. This also gives what is usually a classic drop sugar cookie — good but hardly exciting — needed complexity.
- Brown butter: While my brown butter fanaticism is well-established, I like to limit its usage to places where you can really taste it, and my word, here we really do.
- Vanilla bean: I briefly wondered if adding vanilla bean paste would add more of a Pinterest keyword pileup than actually improve the flavor and then I tried it and I was very wrong. It’s heavenly here.
- My favorite cinnamon: No, it’s not mandatory but my forever favorite, Burlap & Barrel’s Royal Cinnamon, is a particular treat here. Be like crazy Deb and buy it in one-pound bottles. Share it with friends, if they’re nice.
This is my forever snickerdoodle recipe, the last I’ll ever need, and I can’t wait for them to win a spot in your permanent repertoire too.
Brown Butter Snickerdoodles
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 225 grams) unsalted butter (see Note)
- 3 tablespoons (45 grams) water (see Note)
- 3 cups (400 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar + 3 tablespoons (40 grams) for rolling
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt (Diamond brand, use half of others)
- 1/4 cup (2 ounces, 55 grams or 1/4 of an 8-ounce brick) cream cheese, in chunks
- 1 large egg
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
- 1 1/2 tablespoons (10 grams) ground cinnamon
Chill the browned butter: We want to freeze the butter until it’s solid throughout but trust me, this speeds it up: Freeze the butter in the bowl for 30 minutes then give it a full stir, scraping down the sides, mixing the still melted parts in the center over the solidified chunks. Return to the freezer for another 15 to 30 minutes — it should now be firm throughout. Cut it into chunks, right in the bowl. No need to make them even.
To make the cookies in a food processor: Place the flour, 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) of the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in the work bowl of your food processor and pulse to blend. Add your cold brown butter chunks and cream cheese and pulse and blend until all visible pieces disappear and the mixture looks like breadcrumbs. Add egg and vanilla and blend until mixture is fully combined, scraping down as needed (dough will look like boulders) then keep running the machine for approximately another full minute, until the dough mixture looks thick and smooth.
To make with an electric mixer: Place the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, beat cream cheese, chilled brown butter, and 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) of the sugar until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and blend again, scraping down the bowl as needed. Add flour mixture and beat just until flour disappears. In some cases, dough made with this method will feel too soft to roll into balls in your hands; if so, let it chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or so before using.
Heat oven: To 375°F (190°C)
Finish the cookies: Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine remaining 3 tablespoons (40 grams) granulated sugar and all of the cinnamon. Scoop cookie dough into 1.5-tablespoon-sized balls (I’m using a #40 scoop), roll briefly in your hands to smooth them, then roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture before placing on the prepared baking sheet. Use your fingers to slightly flatten (picture: 1/3 of the way) each dough ball. Repeat with remaining cookies, spacing them two inches apart.
Bake cookies: For 10 to 11 minutes. They will still feel very soft and underbaked on top but they will set up as they cool, promise. Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a rack to finish cooling.
Do ahead: These cookies keep for one week in an airtight container at room temperature.
Notes:
- Basic butter: I’m calling for basic, non-European, regular butterfat butter here — you know, the kind that comes in a 1-pound box with four “sticks” at most American grocery stores; store brands are fine. [If you’d like to use a fancier, higher butterfat butter, you’ll want to add back less water after browning the butter.]
- Why the water: When you brown butter, the water content of the butter cooks off (that’s what causes all of that sputtering in the pan) and we want to add it back to ensure that the cookies have the perfect tender texture. I used to measure the water loss by volume and would recommend adding just shy of 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons of water back per 1 cup of butter. But recently I’ve begun weighing my brown butter instead and was surprised to learn that what began as 227 grams of butter became 186 grams after browning (i.e. minus 41 grams), meaning you’d want to add 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of water (40 grams) back. However, I found these cookies had the best texture rounding this to 3 full tablespoons (45 grams) of water, and call for it here. Was that super nerdy? Yes. But I know someone was going to ask!
Previously
6 months ago: Charred Salt and Vinegar Cabbage
1 year ago: Glazed Apple Cider Doughnut Cake
2 years ago: Chicken Rice with Buttered Onions
3 years ago: Apple and Cheddar Crisp Salad
4 years ago: Winter Squash and Spinach Pasta Bake
5 years ago: Skillet Turkey Chili
6 year ago: Chicken Curry
7 years ago: Even More Perfect Apple Pie
8 years ago: Quick Pasta and Chickpeas and Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
9 years ago: Garlic Wine and Butter Steamed Clams, Baked Alaska, Indian-Spiced Cauliflower Soup and Skillet-Baked Pasta with Five Cheeses
10 years ago: My Old-School Baked Ziti and Cannoli Pound Cake
11 years ago: Better Chicken Pot Pies and Better Chocolate Babka
12 years ago: Miso Sweet Potato and Broccoli Bowl and Purple Plum Torte
13 years ago: Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls
14 years ago: Apple Pie Cookies
15 years ago: Mushroom Lasagna
16 years ago: Quiche Lorraine and Breakfast Apple Granola Crisp
17 years ago: Majestic and Moist Honey Cake, Best Challah (Egg Bread), and Mom’s Apple Cake
18 years ago: Peter Reinhart’s Bagels and Peanut Butter Brownies
19 years ago: Lemon Cake
I don’t share your love of browned butter. Can I skip that and use 1 cup of cold butter? If anyone has tried this (or ideally both versions) I’d appreciate hearing about it.
Yes, 1 cup cold butter and you should skip the added water.
I‘ve tried the recipe without the browning and the water and it worked!
Can’t wait to try these!!! The “quiet bit with softly crisp edges,” ugh you have theee finest, most reliable taste in cookie textures. Thanks for the nerdiness, we precision/texture peeps 🩷 that
Home run! The only change I made was to add 1/2 tsp cardamom to the dust. Perfectly mouth watering tang balancing that brown butter richness mmm…
Question though – I creamed and creamed with my stand mixer and some of the little brown bits never broke down past about lentil-size so some of the cookies have tiny divots where the shards melted in the oven. No ill effect but did I do something wrong?
These look fabulous and I will be baking them soon! Thanks Deb!
Snickerdoodle And brown butter, who needs world peace?! Can’t wait to try!!
Can we talk about the lack of cream of tartar and why, please? I’m thrilled about the nerdiness related to the brown butter but I’m needing the nerdy reason why there’s no cream of tartar in this snickerdoodle too. Thanks.
Hello there,
I am curious if you can just use browned butter, adjusting water content, in the award winning snickerdoodle recipe that uses cream of tartar? Is there a reason this won’t work?
I love the texture that cream of tartar gives snickerdoodles. It seems very different than a soft cake cookie.
Annie, I’m wondering the same thing!
Deb: would you please share with us the process that led you to eliminate the cream of tartar? Thank you.
I’m so excited that there’s no cream of tartar bc that always leaves a funny taste in the back of my mouth. I always pass on snickerdoodles because of it. I’m really excited to try this one.
You can do the brown butter + water adjustment if you prefer the original cookie’s texture.
I love your work. But if they don’t have cream of tartar, they’re not snickerdoodles, they’re sugar cookies. Which are great! But a separate thing. Snickerdoodles are a very specific little niche, not “any cookie rolled in something.” I will die on this hill, clearly…
omg let Deb live lol
in all seriousness, these look incredible. super psyched to make these!
Ha! I woke up to so many comments about the cream of tartar. So, let’s dig in and I’ll add a note at the end of the recipe.
First, these are *not* classic snickerdoodles and do not aspire to be. If you’d like a classic snickerdoodle recipe, I’ve got you covered, cream of tartar and all (although if you’re reading my Weekly Yap newsletter, you might know how it’s really labeled in the Smitten Kitchen, mwahaha)
I know that people say that the cream of tartar adds a tanginess or softness to classic snickerdoodles, but I simply have not found that to be true. My understanding is that reason that old-school snickerdoodle recipes had cream of tartar in them is because the recipes predated commercial baking powder. Here’s Google on it: “Before baking powder was invented, cream of tartar was a common ingredient for leavening, as it is an acidic powder that, when combined with baking soda (a base), produces carbon dioxide gas to make baked goods rise.” That’s why homemade baking powder is made from baking soda + cream of tartar + a pinch of cornstarch. Obviously commercial baking powder has been around for a long time now, thus it’s chemically unnecessary to include cream of tartar in snickerdoodle recipes. I think it’s pure nostalgia that keeps it there.
And while I love some nostalgia, I like this newfangled snickerdoodle recipe even more. It has an actual subtle tang and slight softness from cream cheese. I can’t wait for you guys to get obsessed with it too.
I can taste the difference between a snickerdoodle with and without cream of tartar. But I love, love, love browned butter, so soon to taste this too!!!!
I will try and sincerely hope to be obsessed!!! ❤️
Believe it or not, in Stella Parks’s “Bravetart” cookbook, she also has a recipe for snickerdoodles (and a cake style variation, snip doodles, omg), that also does not contain cream of tartar! Her book includes a lot of history of the baked goods she features and is an interesting read for sure.
I’ve been making your old version for a million years to rave reviews and am up to try these, but no cream of tartar has left my flabbers truly gasted. Is the small amount of cream cheese really enough to provide the tang of a classic snick, or is this just a different animal entirely?
I wrote too long of a response to copy-paste here. You can read it here:
https://natural-health-article.site/2025/10/brown-butter-snickerdoodles/#comment-2710946%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Thank you, and SOLD.
First of all, I wanted to tell you that your comment really made me laugh. That was so needed. Secondly, I wondered the same question. Cream of tartar gives that special something aftertaste like food-grade lye does with fresh boiled bagels. I just made these cookies and while the cream cheese does give it some flavor, sadly it’s more of a sourness and not the same effect as cream of tartar.
Thank you, and good to know! My husband likes the originals super underbaked, so I’m going to see how these work for him, but I think my friends and bake sale compoatriots will fire me if I change from the old standard. I will be a two-snick household!
Gasted flabbers, LOL. I’m loving the comments on this recipe.
Browning and then reconstituting the butter by calculating the before and after browning weight is peak Smitten Kitchen — and why we’re all here!
Thank you for encouraging my relentless nerdery!
One of my favorite things in this digital age is when I see a freshly published recipe from one of my faves and by some dumb luck I’ve got all the ingredients and a free afternoon.
These we’re divine. A forever snickerdoodle recipe indeed! I only had Kerrygold on hand so used that and added 30g of water. That seemed to work great.
Thank you for this one!
Had to give a wry smile at ‘only Kerrygold’ you lucky ducky. That’s a premier butter brand where I live, so it’s bog-standard supermarket butter for me. You’re living my dream!
Amazingly, I had already committed to baking approximately 50 Snickerdoodles this Saturday, AND to use a recipe that my predecessor always used.
But now you’ve tempted me with brown butter, and the timing is just too perfect. Smitten Kitchen wins again!
P.S. Deb, you mentioned “warm snickerdoodles” — how could I create that effect if I’m baking them the day before? Should I slightly underbake them and then heat them up half an hour before the meeting?
You could definitely pop them in a 300-degree oven for a few minutes to rewarm them. They shouldn’t dry out too quickly.
Thanks so much, Deb, for responding!
Sorry to be re-asking the ame questions, but would it make sense to slightly underbake the snickerdoodles the day before, or not? Perhaps “the center would not hold,” to misquote Yeats?
I call for underbaking them in the recipe. If you bite into one right away, you’ll thinks it’s raw. 20 to 30 minutes later, it’s perfect. And a week later too.
I have loved and will continue to lover EVERYTHING on this site and that Deb writes. But I, too, am wondering about the absence of cream of tartar. I don’t have many “creeds” in my life, but the unique, almost ineffable flavor that cream of tartar imparts to a Snickerdoodle is what makes them a Snickerdoodle.
If I want to make this ahead/in smaller snatches of time throughout a workday, can I brown the butter and stick it in the freezer for any length of time? Or does it have to be chilled but not totally frozen (in which case, can I stick it in the fridge for a long length of time instead)?
Can I freeze the dough after rolling but before baking?
Yup
SO good! 10/10. Perfect texture, size, and presentation. The sourness from the cream cheese checks the box that cream of tartar normally would. These brown butter is such a yummy twist. These are a new favorite and entering the fall rotation!
Yum! These were delicious. Mine were best at 10 minutes. I love the slightly crispy outer edge and the soft inside. The instructions were very clear and great for making the brown butter. My kids gave them a thumbs up!
I made these the day you published the recipe. Arbiter of all Baked Goods (Husband) says they are good, but I screwed up something – not sure what. My dough never came together – it was all crumbs. I wound up having to squeeze it into balls. Not ideal, I know. I guess they affected the texture, but they WERE good, so maybe not. I will try again!
These are amazing! They are SO much better without the metallic taste that cream of tartar imparts. Definitely a keeper recipe!
I’ve found that giving the butter a gentle stir once or twice as it’s browning helps keep the browned bits from sticking to the bottom of the pot. I forgot to do it this time and missed out on having all of that yummy goodness in the cookies (and I had to scape the pot!).
Ah, I think perhaps you’ve captured that ‘funny taste’ I’ve always associated with schnickerdoodles. They are one of my favourite cookies despite that hint of an aftertaste that I can honestly say would put me off any other cookie. So excited to give these a try.
I made these today! The ‘non-European butter’ gave me a pause at first, since I am IN Europe, but I simply measured out the grams lost after browning the butter and added water accordingly. It worked perfectly. They taste amazing and all faults (my food processor was not powerful enough for this so I had to switch methods in the middle of it all, and I definitely made them too big at first because I am absolutely terrible at gauging 1.5 table spoons) are my own.
I do think if I make them again I would experiment a bit with the butter vs cream cheese ratio, just to see what happens.
Because I am insane like Deb, I made 3 batches of snickerdoodle cookies today:
1) These brown butter snickerdoodles. We loved them, until we compared them to the others made with cream of tartar below; then it was clear that the cream of tartar impacts a more sour flavor than the cream cheese, and we prefer the cream of tartar taste.
2) Deb’s original classic snickerdoodles, but with the chilled brown butter technique from here. This did not work out for me, the chilled butter didn’t incorporate evenly into the batter and the resulting cookies were super uneven. Flavor-wise, it still didn’t live up to #3 below.
3) Brown butter-bourbon snickerdoodles from Jesse Szewczyk’s Cookies: The New Classics (which is a great book, I’ve had one dud I need to work on adjusting because it spread too much but even then it tasted great, and everything else I’ve tried has been perfect). These snickerdoodles were VERY soft when scooped and spread very flat as a result; they contain 20g less flour per egg than Deb’s Classic Snickerdoodles recipe, plus an extra Tbsp of liquid from the bourbon and melted butter instead of solid, so no wonder. But the flavor is amazing. It’s probably fine for snickerdoodles to spread but I will try tweaking it nonetheless next time by increasing the flour qty.
Also, a tip on browning butter: if you let it go a little too far, but it’s not totally black, you can still use it. The taste will be a little more dark caramel than toffee but it doesn’t taste burnt.
Wanted to add – I have made Deb’s Classic Snickerdoodles in the past, following the recipe exactly, and they were great. Subbing in brown butter in a recipe that calls for solid, not melted butter is tricky, so that failure is not the recipe’s fault! I might have frozen the butter for too long, since I halved the recipe (and didn’t for the Brown Butter Snickerdoodles because I hate halving eggs) and didn’t halve the freezer time.
Thanks for the thorough review. Great info here.
You also confirmed that cream of tartar does impart a certain “Je ne sais quoi”.
Happy Baking!
Yes, I was surprised to find how much I could taste the cream of tartar. I didn’t grow up eating homemade cookies of any kind and don’t have a strong opinion on snickerdoodle vs sugar cookie. But I definitely liked the extra sourness to balance the sweetness of the rest of the cookie in the recipes that used cream of tartar.
Before I try this (it LOOKS delish! – I LOVE Snickerdoodles), I live in Mile High Denver – high and dry! Any adjustments needed for high (and rather dry) altitude?
If it helps, I am at lower altitude than Denver but at 3000ft in the dry Rocky Mountains, and I sometimes have trouble with cookies spreading too much, but these baked up perfectly as per the recipe.
Thanks for reporting that personal experience. Helpful!
I can’t wait to try these!
How many cookies / sheets does this recipe yield?
It makes 30 to 32 cookies.
I got 24 cookies/2 sheet pans with this recipe.
First time I’ve ever made Snickerdoodles! So good!
Wow, tackled these while juggling four kids including two little ones and a fresh lasagna, and they were still perfect! Enlisted my three year old and teen to do the rolling and dipping in sugar which allowed me to get din on the table at the same time. Recipe was easy, no fuss, and texture/flavor incredible. Made tonight’s dinner even more special to have a surprise treat for all. Expecting to make endless more batches with endless gratitude to Deb for another winner. Keep em up!
I made those without browning the butter, and they turned out great! This was so easy and fun to bake.
However, I wonder if I accidentally added too much baking powder – my cookies have risen way more than the ones in your photos, and they taste a bit too salty.
And I‘m not sure if it‘s because of the european butter, but the dough and resulting cookies were a tiny bit too crumbly, I might add an extra tablespoon of cream cheese next time.
And I added extra cinnamon to the dough because I love spicy cookies, I‘ll probably experiment next time and add some more spices like cardamom as well.
These are divine. Made them for a Girl Scout troop hike tomorrow, and we’ll be lucky if we have a dozen left!
I made these on the spur of the moment last night and served them to some friends, who enjoyed them muchly (as did I). For our oven, 10 minutes was the right amount of time to bake them. I checked one of my trays at that time and left them sit in the oven for another 2 minutes because the center felt too soft, but this tray more than the others turned out with an unwelcome snap. Still tasty, just not quite it, texturally.