So, the other night we were watching Throwdown with Bobby Flay because he’s the man, and they were doing chocolate chip cookies. It was 9PM, right about the time we start craving a tasty treat, but alas, I had no chocolate chips! Terrible, I know. I should always have a reserve. Of course, I found out later that I actually had semisweet baking chocolate in the back that would have served for chocolate chunk cookies, but I digress. Anyway, I figured that I could make snickerdoodles with what I had on hand – simple fluffy cookies with cinnamon sugar, right? WRONG. (Well, sort of.)
Turns out that your traditional snickerdoodles have cream of tartar. Honestly, I’ve never used the stuff and have no reason to keep it around, so I thought I was doomed. Luckily, Google + Martha Stewart came to the rescue! I made the cookies as directed and they were perfectly fluffy and tasty and held up really well against milk, both in terms of flavor and dunking them (as Adrian always has to do). Here’s the recipe with my additions in italics, from Martha’s Holiday Cookies 2005.
A couple of notes first: baking them on a Silpat made for much better cookies than a nonstick foil-lined sheet pan (I don’t have parchment paper at the moment, either), and beating the butter and sugar for about 3 minutes until pale and fluffy is absolutely crucial.
Ingredients:
- 2 3/4 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside (if you have a stand mixer, you can do the sifting while the butter and sugar are beating). Put butter and 1 1/2 cups sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low; gradually mix in flour mixture.
- Stir together cinnamon and remaining 2 tablespoons sugar in a small bowl. Shape dough into 20 (1 3/4-inch) balls (really easy to do with an ice cream scoop, was about 3/4 of mine); roll in cinnamon sugar. Space 3 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper (or a Silpat / silicone baking sheet).
- Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are golden, 12 to 15 minutes.
42 responses to “Snickerdoodles without cream of tartar”
So, if clarinet doesn’t work out for Adrian….you could be a recipe tester and Adrian could photograph food for magazines or other advertisements….the risotto recipe looks great, I’m looking forward to trying it soon!!
Alex grandson loves these cookies…amazing how most recipes for Snickerdoodles are similar,
variations is butter or shortening/margarine, with/without cream of tartar,with/without vanilla.All comments great to read!
amazing thank you very much. your husband must really love your cooking
I made these for my Brother-in-law for his birthday. I’m not usually a Snickerdoodle fan (I love my Chocolate), but these were really good! I made some slight changes, but used this as a starting point. Thanks
~CJ
Nummy except the time I forgot to add sugar lol my bad!!
Hey there! I want to thank you for these, but I have a question. Right now, my snickerdoodles are baking for testing, but I noticed the batter was too sticky to shape with hands. Did I do anything wrong? I put it the remaining batter in the fridge, but will it help at all?
Chilling the dough will definitely work, it’s just that the butter was a bit melted. I put mine in the fridge for a few minutes and they were just perfect. If you want, you can play around with it a bit and add a bit more flour, a bit less butter, etc.
I make these for my boss and she loves them!
What does cream of tartar do ? I never use it but most Snickerdoodles call for it.
Cream of tartar is an acid. In combination with baking soda, a chemical reaction creates the signature cracked texture on the tops of the cookies.
I liked your recipe i just didn’t press the button.
Baking powder is just baking soda and cream of tartar, so it does have some in it!
Actually, baking soda only has one ingredient; sodium bicarbonate. It requires an acid to react as a leavener, which in this case is the cream of tartar and tends to react right away. Baking powder on the other hand also contains sodium bicarbonate, as well as two acids so it does not require an added acid to act as a leavener. It reacts more slowly.
oooh thank you fir the recipe!
My cookies turned out as flat as pancakes! What happened? 😞
Likely the dough was over worked and whatever fat you used in the dough (likely butter) melted due to the heat of your hands. When put into the oven, it spread due to the overly heated dough. Next time, just try putting it in the fridge for a few minutes before baking.
Maybe there wasnt enough flour
I made them, added extra flour and they rocked!!! I def recommend if u like a tad sweeter , just press in the cinnamon sugar once you’ve scooped it. Thanks for the recipe!!!!!!!
Tried out this recipe when my husband and I both had a taste for something sweet, but couldn’t put a finger on what exactly we wanted. These hit the spot! So yummy and soft and just sweet enough.
Turned out awesome!Cookies were amazing!
What does chilling the dough do?
it makes it less sticky and easier to handle. it also prevents the cookies from being flat as pancakes!
These turned out great, I used 1/2 butter and 1/2 shortning……. Yummmy
thank you
Made this the other day and my family loved them! Thanks!
Tasted the dough before baking and was skeptical, but was totally blown away by the texture and flavor once out of the oven!! My batch didn’t spread out so I pressed them with a fork peanut butter cookie style after they had baked 10 minutes and then put them back in for two more – perfect!
Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
What if I only have salted butter ? Is this going to be a disaster ?
These are amazing! I made caramel to go on top and added a little sea salt – perfect salted caramel snickerdoodles 🙂
These were amazing…. my family begs for them now… the perfect addition to our Christmas cookie buffet… thank you so much for sharing your Snickerdoodle recipe!
First snickerdoodle recipe I’ve tried on my own & they came out great! Saving this recipe
Made these with my 11yo and 3yo – great tasting, amazing texture, easy recipe! Thanks! Will make again.
I’ve always loved and baked great Snickerdoodles. The one time I attempted them without Cream of Tartar they were hard as a rock. Never again! If I don’t have Cream Of Tartar there will unfortunately be no Snickerdoodles.
Thank you so much I had no cream of tartar so I followed your recipe but added extra flour and they were fantastic
The cookie dough was very hard when we mixed all the ingredients together. So we tried to make donuts and that failed. lol these are so bad.
Why so much hate? I wrote this in my school newspaper and everyone loved them!
Thanks for sharing
These where so great and my family at them within two days. I highly recommend
Amazing comments can’t wait to try your recipe…One question has anyone tried it with coconut oil? The
After you make the dough can you roll it into a log instead of balls?
yum!
How much does this recipe make? Just curious!
I made a half batch.It yielded approx. 15 cookies.I added an extra tablespoon of margarine,then refrigerated it for 20 minutes.worked fine!
My favourite snickerdoodle recipe…thank you for sharing.
I was craving snickerdoodles and these were exactly what I wanted !