Snickerdoodle cookies with a twist! Soft, cocoa-based cookies with warm notes of cinnamon and sugar make for a fun twist on a classic — these chocolate snickerdoodles are sure to be a new favorite!
The photos & text in this post have been updated, but the recipe is the same!
Are you tired of the Christmas music yet? The holiday shopping? The cold weather? The holiday baking?
Some of it I could do without (I’m looking at you, way-crowded shopping center and frosted windshield), but I’m trying to soak up every last bit of holiday cheer that I can in these 9 (!?) days we have left before Christmas. At home, I’ve got Trans Siberian Orchestra on full blast and there are plenty more cookie recipes coming your way in the next few posts.
Today’s cookie recipe is actually from last year — these chocolate snickerdoodles were a huge hit everywhere I took them, but the photos that I had taken didn’t do them justice.
It was time for a reshoot (or maybe just an excuse to re-make one of my favorite cookies).
Ever since I learned that I could sub out the shortening that my mom’s snickerdoodle recipe called for and use butter instead, Snickerdoodles have been my favorite cookies to make every year (there are very few occasions where shortening has any business being in cookies, and Snickerdoodles are not one of them).
I thought I’d shake things up a bit by adding cocoa into the mix.
Chocolate and cinnamon aren’t an everyday flavor pairing (at least not in my world), but they complement each other in an unexpected way; it’s a cozy, slightly spiced, warming taste, crackly outsides with rich chocolate interiors. It’s like a cup of hot cocoa on a snowy Christmas night; they’re festive and cozy and just all around delicious.
I never really considered a cookie as something that could be particularly cozy, but I’ve said it twice now so it must be true, at least when it comes to chocolate snickerdoodles.
Since the chocolate taste is pretty pronounced in these chocolate snickerdoodles (duh), I didn’t want the cinnamon flavoring to be lost in the final product. Half teaspoon of ground cinnamon is sprinkled into the dough in addition to being rolled over the outside.
As I mentioned, I originally published this recipe a year ago, and while I didn’t make any fundamental changes to the recipe, I did add in an optional step where you chill the dough balls for a second time after you’ve rolled them in cinnamon/sugar/cocoa powder.
This isn’t necessary for a great final product, but I like to do it because allowing the dough time to sit with the sugar coating encourages a nice classic crackle in your baked chocolate snickerdoodles.
Enjoy!
Chocolate Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 1 cup sugar (200g)
- ½ cup light brown sugar tightly packed (100g)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (326g)
- ¼ cup cocoa powder (25g)
- 1 ½ tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
For rolling
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- In KitchenAid or with electric mixer cream butter.
- Add sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating until combined and pausing after each addition to scrape down sides of bowl.
- In separate, medium-sized bowl whisk together flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
- With mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, pausing occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl.
- Once all ingredients are incorporated, transfer bowl to refrigerator and chill 30 minutes.
- In small bowl, whisk together sugar, ground cinnamon and cocoa powder for rolling.
- Once dough has finished chilling, remove from refrigerator and roll into 1- 1 ½" balls.
- Roll in sugar/cinnamon/cocoa powder mixture until coated in mixture and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet, spacing about 2" apart (do not ever put cookie dough on a hot/too-warm pan, the cookies will spread too thin when baking if you do).
- Place pan in refrigerator (or freezer!) and chill sugar/cinnamon/cocoa coated dough balls for another 30 minutes (this step is optional & can be skipped if you're impatient -- you can jump right to placing them in the oven. However, doing this step will give you nicer, more pronounced crackles in your cookies, if you're into that sort of thing)
- While dough is chilling, preheat oven to 350F.
- Once dough has finished chilling, bake on 350F for 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool 5-10 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
Originally published 11/30/15 — text & photographs updated 12/16/16
Rachel
Should the cocoa powder be unsweetened?
Sam
Yup! Enjoy 🙂
Bev
Thanks so much for this recipe it is soooo good- now in my top 5 all time favorite cookies. Wow- they are good and you cant just eat 1 cookie.
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Bev! 🙂
Bev
I used the new Dark Chocolate cocoa and fine sea salt in this recipe if you like to amp up the chocolate flavor and that have that hint of salty bite.
Sam
Ooo that sounds delicious! 🙂
Tracy
These were a huge hit! I will definitely make them again. 🙂
Sam
I am so glad you enjoyed them so much, Tracy! 🙂