These thick brown butter snickerdoodle cookies have a rich flavor and soft yet chewy texture. They’re rolled in chai-spiced sugar before baking — think cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves. A great autumnal variation on a classic cookie.
Why You’ll Love These Snickerdoodle Cookies
If I took a poll, would you say that snickerdoodles are more of a Fall/Winter cookie, or Spring/Summer cookie? I say they lean heavily into Fall/Winter, and I love making snickerdoodles on a cold night with a lil glass of wine.
These chai snickerdoodle cookies are a great Fall variation on the cookie. The main difference is that instead of being rolled in purely a cinnamon sugar, these cookies get a coating of chai-spice sugar. They’re such a winner–here’s why I think you’ll love them:
- Browning butter before baking adds a nutty, rich flavor to the cookies that goes great with chai spices.
- Flavorful with cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, and more.
- The cookies are thick and somehow manage to be soft and chewy at the same time.
- Perfect for Fall.
For other fall snickerdoodle recipes, I also love these pumpkin snickerdoodle blondie bars if you are looking for even more inspiration!
Ingredients for Chai Snickerdoodle Cookies
- All-Purpose Flour: Measure flour correctly using either a scale or the spoon-and-level method.
- Unsalted Butter: You will need 2 sticks + 2 tbsp of butter, cut into slices so that they melt evenly. The reason for the very specific butter measurement is that as you brown butter it loses water and decreases in volume.
- Cornstarch: Makes the cookies tender and soft
- Cream of Tartar: Dare I say this is the essential Snickerdoodle ingredient? Cream of tartar is what makes the cookies soft and gives them that tangy flavor.
- Baking Soda: Leavening agent.
- Granulated sugar: Adds sweetness. Avoid reducing the amount of sugar in the recipe as that will impact the cookie’s texture.
- Eggs, at room temperature: Soak eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes before baking to bring them to room temperature.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Adds flavor
- For Rolling the Dough: Granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, cardamom, and cloves.
Tips for Brown Butter Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Room temperature ingredients: Warm ingredients mix together much more easily than cold ingredients. Make sure to bring your eggs to room temperature first, which you can do by soaking them in a bowl of hot water. In addition, there is risk of your butter splitting if you throw cold eggs in there, which impacts the cookies’ texture.
- Chill the dough: Chilling the cookie dough has several benefits. The first is that it makes the dough much easier to handle and roll (the dough is quite soft without chilling). Second, it prevents the cookies from flattening too much when baking, so that you end up with nice, thick cookies. And third, it leads to more flavorful, chewier cookies.
- Follow the Recipe: Try to avoid making substitutions, otherwise your cookies may not turn out exactly as intended.
What is Cream of Tartar?
Cream of tartar is the ingredient that gives snickerdoodles their distinctive flavor and texture, differentiating them from a regular sugar cookie. Scientifically, it is an acidic white powder that becomes a leavening agent when combined with baking soda — that is why you will find a combination of baking soda + cream of tartar in this recipe.
As cream of tartar is an acid, it gives these chai snickerdoodles their notable tangy flavor, and also prevents the sugar in the dough from crystallizing — resulting in a chewier texture.
FAQs for Chai Snickerdoodle Cookies
Can you make snickerdoodles without cream of tartar? Technically, yes, you can substitute baking powder, but I would not recommend it. Without the cream of tartar, these cookies will taste and feel more like sugar cookies and lose their distinctive tangy flavor. They’ll still be tasty, but I think the recipe is best without substitutions.
How do I store snickerdoodle cookies? Store cookies in an airtight bag or container — they’ll be good on the counter for up to 5 days.
Can I freeze snickerdoodles? You can freeze uncooked cookie dough and plop them onto a baking sheet when you’re ready to enjoy. To freeze cookie dough, start by rolling out the cookies, coating them in chai cinnamon sugar. Afterwards, put the rolled out balls of dough into the freezer to harden for 30 minutes, and then transfer them into a freezer bag. Note that if you are baking from frozen, it will take a few minutes longer so make sure to account for that.
Pin & Save for Later
Are you interested in making this recipe but not ready to bake yet? Not to worry! You can hover over (or tap on mobile/tablet) any image in this post to save it to Pinterest. You can also directly pin the recipe card down below. The recipe will be waiting for you when you need it. 🙂
Happy baking my friends and as always, hope you love your chai snickerdoodle cookies!
Brown Butter Chai Snickerdoodles
These Brown Butter Chai Snickerdoodles are soft, chewy, and a perfect cookie for fall. They have a rich brown butter cookie dough and are rolled in a chai spiced cinnamon sugar before baking.
Ingredients
Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough
- 1 cup + 2 tbsp (254g) unsalted butter, cut into slices
- 2½ cups (300g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1½ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
For Rolling
- ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
- 1½ tsp ground cardamom
- ¾ teaspoon cloves
- ¾ teaspoon ginger
- ¾ teaspoon allspice
Instructions
- Brown the butter. Add the butter into a heavy-bottomed pan over medium heat. Melt the butter, stirring constantly. The butter will begin to sizzle and pop. Continue stirring and heating the butter until you see medium brown flecks and smell a nutty aroma. Pour the butter into a heatproof mixer bowl or mixing bowl.
- Make the cookie dough. Let the browned butter cool for 10-15 minutes until it is no longer hot. In the meantime whisk the flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set this aside.
- Once the browned butter has cooled, add the sugar and beat for 30 seconds to combine it. You can also do this by hand. Then, add the eggs and vanilla extract and continue beating until smooth and creamy.
- Add the flour and gently fold it in until it is just combined. The dough will bey very soft.
- Cover and chlll the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes. If you are chilling it for more than an hour, you may need to let it soften for a while on the counter until it is scoop-able.
- After chilling the dough, preheat the oven to 350°F and grease two large cookie sheets.
- Roll the cookies. Combine the granulated sugar and spices together in a small bowl until the spices are evenly distributed.
- Scoop 1.5 tbsp sized balls of cookie dough (a medium cookie scoop will work) and roll each ball in the chai spiced cinnamon sugar to fully coat it. Repeat until you use up all of the dough.
- Place the cookies 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Use your palm to gently press down on the top of each one. Skip if you want taller cookies.
- Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes, or until the edges start to brown and middles are puffed up. It's okay if cookies aren't 100% cooked through in the middle as they'll continue to cook as they cool.
- Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on the sheet before digging in or letting them cool completely. Enjoy!
Notes
- You can mix the cookie dough either by hand or in a mixer.
- Do not skip chilling the dough. The cookie dough is too soft to scoop right after you make it. Chilling the dough also lets the flavors come together and yields a chewier, more flavorful cookie.
- If you want to make this recipe without browned butter, reduce the amount of butter in the recipe to 1 cup (226g) and simply melt it.
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