Gluten-free Snickerdoodle Cookies

Gluten-free Snickerdoodle Cookies, soft and chewy, rolled in cinnamon sugar. This classic cookie is bound to be someone's favorite!

When I asked my followers on Instagram what their favorite fall cookie was, snickerdoodles were the clear winner. I have to agree with them that this classic cookie is a favorite and for good reason. These gluten-free snickerdoodles are the perfect combination of soft and chewy with crisp edges and the warm cinnamon-sugar coating makes them nearly irresistible!

Ingredients

So what's in a snickerdoodle that makes it a snickerdoodle? At the surface they're almost a sugar cookie but a couple of key ingredients is what makes or breaks a snickerdoodle.

• Butter and Shortening: A combination of butter and shortening is necessary for this recipe. The cookies I made with all butter were too soft and crumbly. The addition of a little shortening added structure and solved this problem!
• White and Brown Sugar: Again, in order to get the texture just right, a little brown sugar along with white sugar is the way to go.
• Vanilla and Egg round out the rest of the wet ingredients.
• Gluten-free all-purpose flour: I used Pamela's All-purpose Artisan Blend flour in this recipe. It is one of my favorite gluten-free flours.
• Baking soda and Salt for leavening and flavor.
• Cream of Tartar: this is one of the key ingredients that make a snickerdoodle a snickerdoodle. Not only does cream of tartar aid in the leavening process, but it also adds a slightly tangy flavor which is what snickerdoodle purists love.
• Cinnamon & Sugar: rolling the cookies in cinnamon sugar before baking is the other key to making a snickerdoodle. The warm cinnamon flavor is not overpowering but would definitely be missed if it wasn't there.

Making the Cookies

Step 1: First things first, cream the butter, shortening, and sugars together. Get it good and fluffy by mixing for about 2 minutes. Then blend in the egg and vanilla as well.

Step 2: Add in the whisked dry ingredients and mix to combine.

Step 3: Scoop about 1 Tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Roll the dough balls into cinnamon sugar and bake.

That's pretty much it! Now just sit back with a glass of milk and a pile of cookies, snuggle under a blanket with a good book or Netflix and call it a day!

To chill or not to chill?

That is always the question, isn't it... do I need to chill the dough? Well, I have good news, this recipe works well either way. I found that the results between chilled cookie dough and dough that was immediately baked, was not much different. Cookies baked from chilled dough spread a tiny bit less than the room temperature cookies, but not so much that I would say chilling is a must. So there you have it, choose your own advetnure on this one!

Side note on cookie spread: I did find that baking the cookies on a non-stick pan yielded less spreading than cookies baked on parchment.

Pro gluten-free baking tip: Allow the cookies to cool for a couple of minutes on the pan to set before removing to a cooling rack. This helps immensely in avoiding cookies that crumble.

Recipe

More Gluten-free Cookie Love

• Gluten-free Oatmeal Cookies, with or without icing, are another cookie with a hint of cinnamon that reminds me of fall!
• Classic Gluten-free Chocolate Chip Cookies, just like your mom used to make.
• Gluten-free Peanut Butter Blossoms are a chocolate and peanut butter lover's best friend!
• You can't go wrong with Frosted Sugar Cookies any time of year!