Cinnamon Cookies
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My cinnamon cookies are infused with a gorgeous brown sugar cinnamon swirl. They look and taste gourmet but are so easy to make with NO chilling required!
Swirled & Spiced Cinnamon Cookies
Sugar, spice, and everything nice–that’s what cinnamon cookies are made of! With their swirls of buttery, spiced brown sugar goodness, these cookies are gorgeous and oh so tempting. They’re a bit of a cross between a cinnamon roll and a snickerdoodle, and they’re so much fun!
What you’ll love about this recipe:
- Buttery, not too sweet taste with a subtle tang from cream of tartar.
- Pillowy-soft, thick texture that melts in your mouth (If you’re looking for something cinnamon-sugared and thin and crispy, see my sand tarts instead!).
- Gorgeous, brightly flavored cinnamon sugar ripple — makes them the most unique-looking cookie on your Christmas cookie tray!
- Quick & easy to make with NO chilling required.
I was tempted to add a vanilla glaze on top of these cookies, but it made them a bit too sweet for my taste. It’s still good though, so if you love all things sweet, give it a try!
What You Need
I love these cookies because they are so flavorful without any complicated or fussy ingredients. Here’s what you need:
- Butter. We’ll start this recipe with softened butter, and then we’ll need some very soft butter for the brown sugar cinnamon ripple. This butter should almost be melty–similar to the butter you need to make a filling for cinnamon rolls, but you don’t want it to be too warm or it will melt the sugar and be too difficult to work with.
- Egg + egg yolk. Adding an extra egg yolk to the dough makes these cookies super soft and tender. If you don’t want to throw away your egg white, use it to make candied pecans or candied walnuts!
- Sugar. We’ll use granulated sugar in the cookie dough base and brown sugar in the cinnamon swirl. I like to use light brown sugar, but you could use dark brown sugar if that’s all you have on hand.
- Cream of tartar. This adds a subtle tang, similar to the tang in snickerdoodles (and also found in my snickerdoodle cake. A funny sounding ingredient, you can read more about cream of tartar and its role in baking in my “What is Cream of Tartar?” post.
- Salt. This balances the sweetness and rounds out the buttery flavor in these cinnamon cookies. If you happen to use salted butter instead of unsalted, you will need to omit the salt in the recipe.
SUBSTITUTION TIP: If you don’t have any cream of tartar, you can use 2 ¼ teaspoons of baking powder instead.
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 Cinnamon Cookies
- Cream the butter and sugar together until combined, then add the eggs and vanilla and stir well.
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients until everything is combined.
- Make the cinnamon sugar swirl: whisk together the brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Add the butter and mix until you have a paste.
- Drop the swirl into the dough by large spoonfuls then, carefully, fold it into the dough, mixing until you have a distinct ripple (do not over-mix, or you will lose the ripple! I am very careful when combining the paste and the dough).
- Scoop and roll 1 ½ tablespoon portions of dough between your palms, then place 2″ apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
- Bake for 10-11 minutes. When finished baking you may notice some very light browning around the edges, but the cookies shouldn’t get too dark or they may be dry. Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets before enjoying.
SAM’S TIP: Your cinnamon cookies will be fragile while warm, so let them cool completely on the baking sheet before trying to remove them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! You can make this dough up to 3 days in advance. Just make sure to wrap it well and store in the fridge. If it’s too firm to scoop after chilling, let it sit at room temperature until soft enough to do so (usually 10-20 minutes does the trick).
While they do have similar ingredients, my cinnamon cookies have a buttery cinnamon and brown sugar ripple, while snickerdoodle cookies have cinnamon sugar coating. This results in a different flavor experience, with pops of buttery sugar and spice as opposed to an even coating of cinnamon and granulated sugar.
To achieve a soft and chewy texture, we’ll slightly underbake our cookies in the oven and let them finish cooking on their baking sheets outside the oven. Baking all the way through in the oven would create crisp, overdone cookies. We want them soft and chewy!
I’d love to hear how you like these cookies compared to my snickerdoodle cookies!
Enjoy!
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Cinnamon Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, room temperature preferred
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon table salt
Ripple
- ½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, firmly packed
- 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon table salt
- ¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter, very soft/barely melted
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F (175C) and line baking sheets with parchment paper. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to cream butter and sugar until well combined.1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- Add egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until well combined.1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl whisk together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour, 1 ½ teaspoons cream of tartar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, ½ teaspoon table salt
- Gradually add dry ingredients to wet, stirring until completely combined. Prepare the cinnamon ripple.
Ripple
- In a separate, medium-sized bowl, prepare your ripple by whisking together sugar, cinnamon, and salt until well combined. Add butter and toss together until mixture resembles a paste.½ cup (100 g) light brown sugar, 1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon, ⅛ teaspoon table salt, ¼ cup (57 g) unsalted butter
- Gently fold the paste/ripple into cookie dough using a spatula, careful not to mix too much so you still have a distinct ripple (I dollop several spoonfuls of the paste over the cookie dough and then fold briefly and gently with my spatula).
- Scoop dough by level 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized scoop and (optional) roll gently between your palms to create a smooth ball.
- Place cookie balls on prepared cookie sheet, spacing at least 2” apart and transfer to center rack of preheated 350F (175C) oven to bake for 10-11 minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet before enjoying.
Notes
Storing
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.Cream of tartar substitute
You may substitute the cream of tartar with 2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder.Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
These were sooooo good! perfect texture and flavor. I followed the metric measurements and had no issues. I used a cup to fix the ones that weren’t a perfect circle when they came out since some of the cinnamon mixture would leak over, but I expected as much when I found this recipe.
Nothing about making this recipe worked for me. I weighed everything except for the flour. The base batter never pulled together for me. It was shaggy and almost crumbly as another person posted. Still, I managed to drop in bits of ripple and roll the cookies into small balls. The cookies look nothing like the pictures you have posted. Wish the link to the video you mention above was associated to this page. I couldn’t find it. Anyway. The cookies are ugly but they taste fine.
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Lucie! It sounds like there may have been too much flour in the dough. 🙁
All good. Already half devoured.
This recipe is amazing. We ended a really hard day with these cookies and they literally turned it around in ways you could never imagine. We worship the ground that sugar spun run lady walks on. Thank you again.
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Olive! I’m so happy to be able to help make your day better. 🙂
YUMMMMMM!! These were so good! I made them for my basketball team and there were immediately devoured!
Thank you so much for the recipe!
Made this cookies and they are amazing. My husband and kids love them. The only thing different was use gluten free flour. Will definitely make these again
Made this cookies and they are amazing. My husband and kids love them. My son said they taste like a cinnamon roll but in cookies form. The only thing different was use gluten free flour. Will definitely make these again
These cookies look amazing thank you
Absolutely one of the best cookies I’ve ever made. One of my family members does not like sweets. I gave him the first taste and he said they were so good he had to have another. These will be added to my list of cookies to make. Love them.
Thank you so much for trying my recipe, Debbie! I’m so glad they were such a hit! 🙂
I can’t say enough good things about these cookies!! Even my son who doesn’t like sweets loves these!! Highly recommend Thank you
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Arlene! 🙂
Are they supposed to be really curmly? As I made mine, and they turned out curmly
Hi Z! Do you mean crumbly? They should not be crumbly. Are you running into this issue with the dough itself or after baking the cookies? It may be helpful to take a peek at the video in the recipe card to see exactly how the dough consistency should be.
Is this recipe good to cut out shapes?
Unfortunately these will not work for cut out shapes. They spread in the oven.
I made these cookies last year for Christmas and they were FANTASTIC! Wondering if the batter can be frozen in logs, then baked off another day. If so, thaw first? Overnight in the fridge? Or thaw just enough to slice and bake? Thank you for your help!
Hi Dianne! I actually have a post on how to freeze cookie dough that could be helpful here. I would just try baking from frozen if you follow this method. 🙂
The cookies are delicious, as expected and the norm for this blog. But they spread and are as flat as crepes. Any ideas? I tried chilling too, they still spread. It was brand new baking soda.
Hi Vanessa! I just want to check that you only used 1 egg and 1 egg yolk? Did you weigh your flour? They really shouldn’t spread that much. 🙁
Yes, I weighed my flour. I’ve taken to weighing all my dry goods as listed. And yes, one egg and one yolk.
Did you make any substitutions here? If you had the proper measurements everywhere they shouldn’t spread like that. Was your butter really, really soft and melty?
Realized as I was reading your second reply that while I did scale everything out, and my butter was very soft, I scaled out 300g, not 375g of flour. Missing 20% of the flour is probably my problem. Guess I’ll just have to try again!
Oh no! You will definitely want that extra 75g of flour. I hope you love them! 🙂
Very good cookie. We rolled ours in white sugar before baking. Premo
I’m so glad you enjoyed them so much, Kristen! 🙂
I mean… why do my cookies never flatten? literally every recipe I’ve done on the internet doesn’t work 😔
they always end up looking like small buns😭 excuse me as I go cry
I’m so sorry to hear this is happening, Bree! Are you weighing your flour? The typical cause of this is too much flour and if you don’t weigh it you could be accidentally adding too much. Are you making any substitutions? Are you at a higher elevation?
I measured everything and followed the recipe to the T, but I am at a higher elevation. Could that really be the issue?
Unfortunately, yes higher elevation can cause issues when baking. Without having much experience I can’t say how to adjust though. 🙁 Maybe someone else can chime in with some help.