Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles Recipe - Crazy for Crust (2024)

FAQs

Why are my snickerdoodles crunchy? ›

Granulated Sugar and Ground Cinnamon: These two are mixed together to create the classic cinnamon-sugar coating that snickerdoodles are known for. The sugar caramelizes slightly as the cookies bake, giving them a slightly crisp exterior.

If your cookies repeatedly turn out flat, no matter the recipe, chances are your oven is too hot. Here's what's happening. The butter melts super quickly in a too-hot oven before the other ingredients have firmed up into a cookie structure. Therefore, as the butter spreads so does the whole liquidy cookie.

However they won't be particularly chewy and they should not spread out on the baking sheet that much. There are several reasons why the cookies may have become dry and crumbly but the two most likely are that either the cookies were baked for too long or too much flour was added to the dough.

If yours aren't cracking, your oven may not be hot enough or your ingredients may not be fresh enough! Are snickerdoodles supposed to be undercooked? I always recommend slightly underbaking your cookies and then letting them finish baking through cooling on the pan.

Slightly underbaking cookies with brown sugar in them makes them softer as well. Just make sure to store brown sugar in an airtight environment so it doesn't dry out. Flour plays its part by contributing protein. The lower the protein, the softer your cookies will be.

The most common culprit behind non-spreading cookies is too much flour. This may seem counterintuitive—after all, isn't flour a key ingredient in baking? Yes, but if you add too much flour, your cookies won't spread as they bake.

Fix the recipe

This can be done by adding milk, cream, or even water. If the dough is still too dry, you may need to add more fat. This can be done by adding butter, margarine, or shortening. Once you've added more moisture and fat, knead the dough until it is smooth and pliable.

They puff in the oven and then settle back down while cooling into a soft, thick, supremely chewy cookie with a gorgeous crinkly top. They've received nothing but rave reviews!

When they're done, the snickerdoodles will be puffed, a parts of the cookie will look set. There will be parts that look a little doughy (the crinkles) and that is a good thing. Every oven is different, but in my oven I cannot bake them more than 10 minutes or they're overdone. Sometimes I pull them out at 8 minutes.

Why does snickerdoodle dough need to be refrigerated? ›

"When your dough is refrigerated, the butter hardens. So when you bake them, they spread less and hold their shape better," adds Epperson. "Which means a better likelihood of a soft, chewy cookie in the center."

Using too much flour will make your cookies too cakey, so try reducing the flour amount by two tablespoons. Avoid using cake flour instead; try a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour for a more dense and chewy texture.

Excess Sugar and Fat

Measuring is key in baking. If your cookie contains excess sugar or fat, it will spread while baking. If your first batch of cookies spreads, try adding a few tablespoons of flour to help thicken the remaining dough.

Cookies spread because the fat in the cookie dough melts in the oven. If there isn't enough flour to hold that melted fat, the cookies will over-spread. Spoon and level that flour or, better yet, weigh your flour. If your cookies are still spreading, add an extra 2 Tablespoons of flour to the cookie dough.

The best way to soften up those hard cookies is something you probably already have in your kitchen… bread! That's right, a piece of fresh bread will make those tough treats soft and chewy.

How do you make snickerdoodles puffy and soft? The secret's in the ratio of butter to leavener to flour to egg. Don't use shortening here; you'll miss the flavor of butter. Slightly under-baking the snickerdoodles also guarantees a softer cookie.

If your cookies won't hold together well enough to take them off the baking sheet with a spatula, or if parts of them are obviously still very gooey/runny, then they are undercooked. Otherwise, the best way to tell is to sample one (after it has cooled enough to eat).

How to Make Crispy Cookies. While brown sugar keeps your cookies moist and soft, white sugar and corn syrup will help your cookies spread and crisp in the oven. Using more white sugar in your cookies will result in a crispier end product. To achieve a crispy cookie, skip the rest in the fridge.