Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

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Take classic snickerdoodle cookies to the next level with rich and nutty brown butter! These brown butter snickerdoodles are full of flavor, easy to make (no chilling!) and are almost guaranteed to fly right off your cookie tray.

Brown butter snickerdoodles on a cooling rack.

Browned Butter Snickerdoodles

I’m back with another fun variation of classic snickerdoodles! These brown butter snickerdoodles are thick, soft, melt-in-your mouth cookies that are absolutely loaded with flavor.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Incredible depth of flavor. If you’ve tried my pistachio cake or peach muffins, you know just how impactful brown butter can be. Its nutty, toasted flavor goes so well with the cozy cinnamon in this recipe. I’m not kidding when I say it elevates the classic cookie to new heights.
No mixer needed! Since we’re browning the butter, there’s no need to cream softened butter into the sugar. Yay for simplicity!
The dough freezes well, so it’s great for making in advance or baking just a few cookies at a time.
No chilling required. Though you can certainly pop the dough in the fridge for an hour if you prefer thicker cookies.

The brown butter plays a major role in the flavor of these cookies; I wanted it to be noticeable alongside the classic snickerdoodle taste (slightly tangy, spiced with cinnamon, and sweet). I personally feel like I nailed my flavor goals for this recipe, and might even like these brown butter snickerdoodles better than the regular variety. Can’t wait to hear what you think of them!

What You Need

We’ll be using just 10 ingredients today, all of which are pantry staples. Let’s go over a few before we get started.

Overhead view of labelled ingredients including butter, cinnamon, cream of tartar, and more.

Butter. I stick with unsalted butter and salt to better control the overall flavor of the recipe. If you only have salted butter on hand, you can use that and reduce the salt in the recipe to just ½ teaspoon. Obviously (I hope) we’ll be browning the butter before using it (hence why these are brown butter snickerdoodles!).
Cream of tartar. You can’t truly make a snickerdoodle without this ingredient, as it adds the signature tang that these cookies are known for. Found in the spice aisle, this is a fine white powder and if you’re not familiar I have a whole post that discusses what cream of tartar is and how it’s often used.
Cinnamon. A sprinkle of this sweet spice goes into the dough, but most importantly we’ll make a cinnamon sugar mixture and roll the cookie dough through this before baking. The cinnamon pairs so beautifully with the browned butter, giving these cookies an absolute symphony of flavor.
Eggs. This recipe works best if you use room temperature eggs. If you forget to set yours out ahead of time, head over to my post on how to quickly bring eggs to room temperature.
Brown sugar. I use light brown sugar and recommend you do the same, but you can get away with dark brown sugar if that’s all you have on hand. Just note that dark brown sugar will impart a stronger molasses flavor and will make your brown butter snickerdoodles darker in color.

SAM’S TIP: Measuring your flour properly is so important when baking. In this recipe, if you over-measure your flour (the most common mistake!), your cookies may end up too thick and won’t spread in the oven at all. To avoid this, I highly recommend you use a kitchen scale to measure your ingredients. It’s a game changer!

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

How to Make Brown Butter Snickerdoodles

Brown the Butter

overhead view of a spoon resting in a stainless steel pan of brown butter

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. A light-colored saucepan is best, this way you can most easily tell once the butter begins to turn brown.
Cook the butter (keeping heat low/at least below medium) and you’ll notice it will foam, pop, and sizzle.
Stir constantly until you notice those beautiful golden brown bits forming on the bottom of your pan and you smell the nutty aroma of browned butter.
Once this starts to happen, immediately remove from heat and pour the browned butter into a heatproof bowl. Make sure you scrape the pan with a spatula, you want all of those browned bits to end up in your cookies!

It’s so important that the browned butter be allowed to cool before you add the sugars, or you could end up with a greasy cookie dough that spreads all over your pan. Make sure it no longer feels warm to the touch (I usually feel the bottom of the bowl) before proceeding.

Bowl of cookie dough being mixed together with a bright blue spatula.

Stir together the cooled browned butter and sugars until combined, then add the eggs and vanilla.
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients. I recommend you do this in 4-5 parts, otherwise you will have a tough time bringing the dough together (it’s a pretty stiff dough anyway!).
Whisk together the cinnamon and sugar in a separate small bowl.
Scoop and roll the cookie dough into balls and through the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Bake, then let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheet before enjoying.

SAM’S TIP: Just slightly underbaking these cookies is key to creating the soft and chewy texture that makes these cookies so over the top delicious. They won’t be raw inside though, not once they’ve cooled completely. We’re letting them finish cooking outside the oven on their baking sheets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does brown butter affect cookies?

Brown butter imparts a rich, nutty, toasted flavor to the cookie dough. While these cookies still taste like snickerdoodles, there’s an extra element to them that really rounds out the flavor, and that’s the brown butter!

Brown butter isn’t just for snickerdoodles–try my brown butter chocolate chip cookies or brown butter toffee cookies for a different brown butter cookie experience 😊

Do I have to chill the dough?

No! This recipe will work just fine without any chilling at all. However, if you like thicker cookies, an hour in the fridge (covered, of course!) will do the trick. It’s really up to you and your preference though.

Can I freeze the dough?

Yes! I recommend you follow the instructions for sugar-coated cookies in my how to freeze cookie dough post.

Brown butter snickerdoodles on a cooling rack with the closest cookie missing a bite.

I can’t wait to hear how you like this recipe compared to the classic!

Enjoy!

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