Snickerdoodle Blondies

Name: Snickerdoodle Blondies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 25 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 24 squares
Ingredients: 1 cup unsalted butter (melted and cooled until no longer warm to the touch (227g)); 2 cups granulated sugar (400 g); 2 Tablespoon milk ((30ml)); 2 large eggs; 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional); 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour ((345g)); 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar; 3/4 teaspoon salt; 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar; 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

January 26, 2020 By Sam 224 Comments

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Even better than the cookies, these Snickerdoodle Blondies are buttery, soft, and have that classic signature snickerdoodle tang! These cinnamon-sugar coated blondies may be the best way to eat Snickerdoodles yet. Recipe includes a how-to video!

This snickerdoodle blondie recipe is actually one of the first recipes I ever shared on the blog (scroll down to the bottom of the page for a link to the original so you can have a good laugh at my early photography attempts). It’s one of my favorites, too. An easy-breezy recipe that can be mixed up (without a mixer!) in less than 15 minutes and finished baking in under 30.

This recipe is the perfect marriage of my classic, buttery snickerdoodle cookies (only without the bother of dough-chilling or scooping) and my chewy blondie recipe. Subtly tangy, topped off with a generous shower of cinnamon and sugar, a tender, melt-in-your-mouth cookie crumb, I think you’re going to love these.

What Makes these Snickerdoodle Bars So Good…

Most of the ingredients we’re using are pretty standard ones you’ll be familiar with if you’ve made any of my other bar or cookie recipes. However, there are a two ingredients that are especially key here for the best snickerdoodle blondies.

Butter

No shortening, which so many old-fashioned cookie recipes use. We’re also melting our butter, which not only makes it easy to stir our batter together by hand (no mixer required), but also makes these snickerdoodle blondies especially soft and chewy and infuses every molecule with buttery flavor. As with many of my recipes, I opt to use unsalted butter and add salt so that we have full control over the flavor.

Cream of tartar

This is a big one. One of the questions I get asked most often about this recipe is “I don’t have cream of tartar, can I leave it out?”, to which I always say no, not really.

Technically you could leave it out and these bars would still turn out… They’d still have the same texture, softness and chewiness. Since we’re not baking cookies and our batter is contained in a baking pan, we don’t really need to worry about the chemical/leavening role that this ingredient typically plays in snickerdoodle cookies. However, not everything in baking is always about chemistry. The important role that the cream of tartar plays here is for taste. This ingredient provides a signature tang that makes these taste like actual snickerdoodles and not just sugar cookie bars. If you leave it out, you miss out on that classic flavor.

Then, of course, it goes without saying that a heavy topping of cinnamon and sugar is in order 👆🏻

Tips

We’re using melted butter, but make sure to let it cool before you add your sugar to it. Butter that is too hot will melt your sugar, and you could end up with a greasy dough that doesn’t bake properly in the oven.
I use a metal baking dish, a glass one would be fine but the bars may need to bake for longer.
Snickerdoodle blondies should be stored at room temperature in an airtight container. They’ll stay fresh for at least 3 days.
And, again, don’t leave out the cream of tartar (see notes above!).

Today’s recipe is really so simple to make that I don’t have much else to say here!

Enjoy!

More Bar Recipes to Try:

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