Snickers bars may dominate during the holidays, but I start baking a lot of this treat starting in early September. To celebrate the shift toward spicy and sweet flavors, we decided to put what might be our most popular cookie to the test. (Though we’re pretty partial to the classic chocolate chip cookie.) It’s time to find out once and for all: What’s the best snickerdoodle cookie recipe?
While spiced cinnamon sugar cookies feel especially festive with their warm and sweet flavor, there are a few things that make this snickerdoodle cookie recipe special. Have you ever wondered why your favorite snickers recipe calls for cream of tartar? Turns out, it’s this secret ingredient that gives the cookies their unique texture and flavor. After testing every cookie recipe below, we can confirm – cream of tartar can be made huge The difference.
Read on to learn all the details about the different cookie recipes we tested and which snickerdoodles stood out.
rules of the road
All recipes are exactly as written, with no adjustments made for personal taste or flavor preferences.
Ranking Guide
Unlike chocolate chip cookies, where everyone has their own preferences in terms of texture, flavor, and technique, there are a few key aspects of a Snickers bar that make it a Snickers bar.
- smell. While cinnamon sugar is the main flavor of Snickers, cream of tartar gives it its signature flavor on the back end, rounding out the sweetness. When ranking cookies, we looked for cinnamon, overall sweetness, and rich flavor.
- texture. The cream of tartar creates a delicious pillowy and chewy texture—exactly what we were looking for in a recipe. Not crispy, not thick, but still soft and chewy, and melts in the mouth in the middle.
7. Martha Stewart: Snickers Recipe
While we had high hopes for these cookies, their texture fell short of our expectations. These cookies were firmer and drier than any Snickers we tested, and didn’t have much of a cinnamon flavor. Also discussed if we missed something in the recipe as these looked more like sugar cookies sprinkled with cinnamon to us. (If you disagree, we will claim user error!)
6. Hummingbird High: Snickers recipe without cream of tartar
We affectionately call these cookies “Pudgy Monkeys.” If you had given us these cookies on any other day and not eaten them with a bunch of Snickers cookies, I would tell you, this is an absolutely fantastic cookie. Overall, we both liked this cookie, but when comparing it to other cookies in terms of texture and flavor, we don’t think it was the most snickering.
The texture, while suitable for a sugar cookie, is a little dense while also being very chewy. The taste doesn’t have the same flavor either because as mentioned in the recipe it doesn’t use cream of tartar. Instead, it’s replaced with a healthy dose of baking powder. Again, we really love this cookie and save this recipe for those nights when you can’t find the cream of tartar in the pantry.
5. Smitten Kitchen: Snickers
We love Smitten Kitchen recipes, so we had to whip up these Snickers Bars. These cookies have a rich, creamy flavor, a hint of tang, and a hint of cinnamon spice. But texture-wise, they’re a little flatter than our other cookies, so we’re deducting points for that pillowy, melt-in-your-mouth factor that some other recipes have. However, if you prefer thinner and chewier cookies, add these to your must-bake list.
4. Rick Martinez: BA’s best Snickers bar
Along with brown sugar, this is one of two recipes that uses melted butter instead of softened butter in the cookies. These have an extra step of letting the dough rest for 30 minutes to hydrate.
Have a few thoughts. We don’t feel like letting the dough rest makes it easier to work with, as the dough is still soft and difficult to work with after resting. But other than that, this is a very chewy and buttery cookie, and it’s the tastiest cookie of the bunch. We absolutely love this cookie, but there are a few steps that can make it difficult to knock out the cookies as much as you like.
3. Ray Drummond: Snickers
If you’re looking for a cookie that’s reminiscent of giant, soft cookies from the grocery store, these cookies will be your dream. On the larger side, these cookies have a melt-in-your-mouth interior and a bit of chewiness around the edges. Our only complaint was that we wanted a little more cinnamon flavor, but the signature snickerdoodle soup was perfect. Would do it again.
2. Jessie Sheehan: Epic Snickers
The edge between our top two cookies is very thin, so know that they are both beautiful examples of Snickers. Recipes from Jesse’s book Dessert bakingIt uses part shortening and part butter to make these super tender. The center is fluffy, fluffy, and soft, while the edges have a nice chew and a very subtle crispness. Surprisingly, this is the only recipe that uses cinnamon in the dough. This led several tasters to say it tasted the most cinnamon-y. With creamy, sweet perfection, we’ll be making these cookies on repeat.
1. Broma Bakery: Soft Snickers
Our winner for Best Snickers Cookie Recipe comes from none other than…Broma Bakery! I admit I was skeptical because this recipe used a very different ingredient that I was quoted as saying “didn’t make any difference at all”. I admit I was wrong, but adding a tablespoon of Greek yogurt to these cookies made taste testers call them the moistest cookies of the batch. These are fluffy, airy, buttery and cinnamon-flavored, chewy around the edges, and delicious all around. That’s right – these have it all.
