Traditional Snickerdoodles Recipe

So, you want to know what makes these traditional snickerdoodles taste so great? No, it's not the two entire sticks of butter, though they do help. Nope, not the two kinds of sugar, either. The cinnamon, you ask? Good guess, but that's not it, either! Give up? Okay, here's the answer: it's the nostalgia...and the butter, sugar, and cinnamon, to be fair.

Take one bite of one of these traditional snickerdoodle cookies, crafted by chef and recipe developer Eric Ngo, and you'll be transported back to summer camp lunches, Sunday afternoons at home, Fridays in the school cafeteria, or Saturday picnics in the park. In other words, these snickerdoodles hit the proverbial nail on the head flavor-wise, and not only will they be a pleasure for anyone with fond memories of cookies past, but your kids will love them to. Also, the recipe is straightforward enough that you can involve the kids in the baking of these snickerdoodles, too. So you'll be making more than just a batch of great cookies — you'll be making some memories.

We already talked about the butter, the two types of sugar (white and brown, by the way), and the cinnamon, but what else do you need to make these cookies? Not much, it turns out! You'll also need some all-purpose flour, eggs, baking powder, and salt.

If you want, you can play with the ratios a bit, by the way. "This was a trial and error recipe. Finding your perfect cookie dough is a balance of butter to sugar to flour ratio," Ngo explains. "For me, I prefer more brown sugar in my recipe as it produces just the right amount of chew to ratio crispiness. I also decided not to include cinnamon in the cookie dough itself, but rather only coated them with cinnamon at the end."

Using a stand mixer with its paddle attachment, cream the butter with ¾ cup of white sugar and all of the brown sugar, mixing until the have smoothly combined.

Next, add the eggs and mix until smooth again, making sure to stop halfway and scrape the bottom of the bowl in order to fully incorporate eggs with butter and sugar. Then add the flour, baking powder, and salt, and mix on low speed until the dough is formed.

Chill the cookie dough in refrigerator for 2 hours before moving to the next steps. When those 2 hours are almost up, preheat the oven to 320 F.

Now, mix the remaining ¼ cup of white sugar and 1 tablespoon of cinnamon, and stir until combined. Then use a spoon (or ice cream scoop) to make cookie balls that are each about the size of a golf ball. Coat the cookie balls with the cinnamon sugar and place on them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.

Pop the dough balls into the preheated oven and bake them for 14 minutes, during which time they will turn into, well, cookies. At that point, remove the sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool down, still on the sheet, for 15 minutes.

Finally, coat the cookies in cinnamon sugar a second time for a better visual aspect and a bit more sweetness, then enjoy! As for how long they will keep, Ngo says, "You can keep the cookie dough in the refrigerator for four days, and you can freeze them for up to two months."