Gluten Free Snickerdoodles
My gluten free snickerdoodles have crispy edges, chewy centers, and yummy cinnamon flavor! That makes them a delicious treat to enjoy fall, winter and really, year-round.
I’ve been making these gluten-free cinnamon sugar Snickerdoodles for several years, so it is my tried and true recipe. I make these multiple times every fall and winter.
They’re always a hit wherever I bring them, as everyone loves a classic Snickerdoodle cookie! People say they can’t tell the difference between these gluten-free Snickerdoodles and the ones they’re used to!
Ingredients and Substitutions
Let’s talk about what you need for making these gluten-free snickerdoodle cookies:
- Gluten-free flour: Try these out with your favorite gluten-free flour blend first. If you don’t have a favorite, some of my favorites are gfJules, Authentic Foods Multi-Blend, King Arthur Measure for Measure, and Gluten Free Mama’s almond blend.Â
- Xanthan gum: If the gluten-free flour blend you use already has xanthan gum or guar gum in it, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe. If your flour blend doesn’t have xanthan or guar gum, then you’ll need to add it like the recipe says. One bag of xanthan gum lasts me over a year, even with all the baking I do! You can buy it here on Amazon.
- Cream of Tartar: Cream of tartar is always included in snickerdoodle cookie recipes. Don’t skip the cream of tartar! And if you haven’t used yours in a while, do check the expiration date. You want it to be fresh so that it works properly.Â
- Cinnamon: Use a good cinnamon. I was amazed at the difference when I switched from the regular generic cinnamon to this Saigon Cinnamon that Costco sells.
I wondered cream of tartar was such an essential part of snickerdoodle cookies, so I read this article about cream of tartar and found that “It’s what separates a tangy, chewy snickerdoodle from an ordinary cinnamon-coated sugar cookie. The acid in cream of tartar gives snickerdoodles their distinctive tangy flavor, and the chew happens because cream of tartar prevents sugar in the cookie dough from crystalizing into crunchiness.”
Dairy Free
Can you make these gluten-free snickerdoodles dairy-free too?
Yes! Try different dairy-free alternatives for the butter. Some just don’t melt as good as others. I wish I could remember which dairy-free butter alternative I used in these cookies below. I’ll definitely try with some different dairy alternatives and report back. But if you try this dairy-free, please comment with your substitution and how it worked.
You can also make these gluten-free snickerdoodle cookies as small 2-bite cookies if you’re wanting to bring them to a potluck style gathering. I made them this way using my small cookie scoop and got 4 dozen cookies from one batch. Here’s a pic of them smaller like that (also made dairy-free which caused them not to spread as much):
How to make gluten-free Snickerdoodles
- First you’ll whisk together your flour, xanthan gum (if needed), cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together. Set that aside.
- In your mixer bowl, you’ll beat the sugar and the melted butter together. Then you’ll add the eggs and vanilla and beat until well mixed.
- Next you stir in the flour mixture that you had set aside. Beat on low just until mixed. Now your dough is ready
I used to recommend that you would chill your dough after mixing it, but with some flour blends, it makes the dough way too hard very quickly. Now I recommend you chill the dough only if it’s too sticky to roll. Just cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for about an hour so that it will be easier to roll. Also, always bake a test cookie first and if it spreads too much then chill the dough.
Now it’s time to make the cinnamon sugar mixture to roll the dough balls in. In a small bowl, combine 2 tablespoons of sugar with 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon. Whisk them together. Also, yes I actually have a 2 tablespoon measurer as well as a 1 ½ teaspoon measuring spoon! You can get the 2 tablespoon one and the 1 ½ teaspoon one on Amazon.
Roll each cookie dough ball in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
Then place on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
I recommend using parchment paper instead of spraying the pans. Spraying the pans will usually result in cookies that spread out more.
I recommend spacing the cookie dough balls about 2 inches apart.
After I put them on the parchment paper, I press down on each dough ball to flatten out the dome. If you want yours more domed, then you can skip this.
These gluten-free snickerdoodles bake in a hot oven, 400°. Make sure your oven is fully preheated before putting the cookie sheet in there. I always recommend using a cheap oven thermometer so you can check and make sure your oven is at the right temperature.
After they bake, remove from oven and set hot pan on a cooling rack.
While I like most cookies warm from the oven, I think Snickerdoodles are best when they have a chance to cool to room temperature. Then they firm up and are chewier and perfect for dipping in milk!
The texture of these cookies will be affected by the type of flour you use and the type of butter/alternative you use. I recommend baking a test cookie, and then adjusting from there.
If the test cookie is too thick and puffy, then push the dough balls down more. If the test cookie is very thin and you want thicker, chill the dough for a little bit.
Heat or humidity where you live can also affect the temperature of your dough. If it seems too loose, then just chill for a while, maybe 30-60 minutes and see how it is then.
You can make these as small cookies or medium cookies. If you want to make smaller cookies, use a #60 cookie scoop to scoop your dough. My small cookie balls weighed 19 grams each. They took 7-8 minutes to bake, and yielded 4 dozen cookies.
When made with a medium size cookie scoop, a #40 cookie scoop, the dough balls weighed 34 grams before rolling in the cinnamon/sugar mixture. The medium snickerdoodles baked for 9-10 minutes and one batch yielded 2 dozen cookies.
I’d love if you would comment if you have a chance to try these! I hope they satisfy your craving!
Gluten-free Snickerdoodles
Crispy edges, chewy centers, and yummy cinnamon flavor makes these gluten-free snickerdoodles a delicious treat to enjoy year-round. Everyone goes for seconds of these gluten-free snickerdoodle cookies.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups (325 grams) good all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 3/4 tsp. xanthan gum *(see note)
- 1 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp. baking soda
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 cups white sugar
- 1/2 cup (=8 Tbsp. or 1 stick) butter or dairy-free alternative, melted
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
for rolling:
- 2 Tbsp. white sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, xanthan gum (if needed), cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- In the bowl of your standing mixer, beat the sugar and melted butter or margarine for about 20-30 seconds until mixed.
- Add eggs and vanilla extract and beat 20-30 seconds until well mixed.
- Dump the bowl of dry ingredients into your mixing bowl and mix on low until all combined. Don't overmix.
- If dough is too sticky to roll, then cover the dough and place in fridge to chill for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 400°. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone liners.
- In a small bowl, combine 2 Tablespoons sugar and 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon together.
- Use a small or medium cookie scoop to scoop a ball of cookie dough. Small scoop dough balls weighed 19 grams for me, while medium scoop dough balls weighed 34 grams for me.
- Roll dough balls in sugar/cinnamon mixture and place 2 inches apart on parchment or silicone-lined baking sheets. Push down a bit on the cookie dough balls so they aren't domed. (This helps them spread and get that crackly top snickerdoodles are famous for.)
- Bake small cookies for 7-8 minutes or until set; medium cookies for 9-10 minutes. For crispier cookies, cook longer; for chewier cookies, remove while cracks look just a bit "wet" still, but edges are set.
- Slide cookies off onto a cooling rack. I just slide the whole sheet of parchment right off so I don't have to worry about breaking any cookies.
Notes
*If the gluten-free flour blend you use already has xanthan gum or guar gum in it, then omit the xanthan gum called for in this recipe.
I almost always make these with gfJules flour but see blog post for other flour recommendations and information about other ingredients.
The texture of these cookies will be affected by the type of flour you use and the type of butter/alternative you use. I recommend baking a test cookie, and then adjusting from there. If the test cookie is too thick and puffy, then push the dough balls down more. If the test cookie is very thin and you want thicker, chill the dough for a little bit.
Dec 2020 note: Recent repeated testing of this recipe with different flours has led me to reduce the amount of flour (from 2 3/4 to 2 1/2 cups) and also melt the butter (instead of room temp), and no longer recommend chilling the dough before baking unless necessary. All instructions above have been changed to reflect this. If you had great results with the original recipe, as a reminder it used 2 3/4 cups gluten-free flour, room temp butter and I had recommended always chilling the dough for one hour.
Pin these to your gluten-free cookies board on Pinterest:
I hope you and your loved ones enjoy this recipe as much as we do!
Thank you for all your wonderful recipes. The taste of the Snickerdoodle cookies were wonderful.I do have a question about the texture. I used Authentic foods Milti-blend four as recommend but it came out like c Porn meal. I then looked more closely at the bag and it says “replaces wheat four in most recipes 3/4 cup = 1 cup all purpose wheat flour.” Should I have only used 1 1/2 cups plus 3 tablespoons? I do
Just made these and they are very good. I used Bob’s Red Mill gf baking flour and added tiny cinnamon chips to the dough. I kept them in the refrigerator for 24 hrs. 1st pan I flatten them a little before baking and they look just like the ones I used to make before having to go gf. 2nd pan didn’t flatten and they were. A little puffier, but same great taste. I froze some of the dough to see how it will work out. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Bless you for this recipe! My husband was diagnosed with celiac 5 years ago and hasn’t had a snickerdoodle cookie since then… until now! Delicious!
Tried these with a different GF mix and they turned out great. I was in a hurry so I didn’t chill them but didn’t have a problem. Used Earth Balance instead of butter. Used Xylitol instead of sugar. At first I was disappointed as they didn’t flatten out, stayed balls, and were thick and Cakey. But the next day I tried one and wow, nice subtle crunch on outside and soft inside, a real snickerdoodle taste. Next time I will just flatten them out a bit with a fork before baking. Thanks for a great cookie recipe!
Wow these are delicious! I didn’t have any cream of tartar so I was going to replace it with lemon juice, but I forgot to add it in! They turned out really well without it, maybe a little puffy but looks aren’t important when they’re this tasty ????
These were so good! My 4 yr old has celiac and loved being able to eat these cookies. One tip I have is we had to flatten the dough after we rolled them because they didn’t spread put very much but these tasted like regular snickerdoodles.
What happens i you don’t use xanthan/guar gum at all?
we did it, it’s fine.
if you really care, it’s a binder, so the end product will fall apart a little bit more, so you can replace it with another binder (egg, flax, whatever) but it’s fine without.
I made these last night using Pillsbury’s GF flour and Baking Powder instead of the Cream of Tartar. They didn’t flatten at all and I decided not to refrigerate them. They were absolutely delicious!! Tasted exactly like non-gluten free snickerdoodles from my childhood. Thank you for this brilliant recipe
Hi there, I’ve been cooking and baking gluten free for a few years now (my boyfriend is gluten and dairy free- by need not want). We’re having company tonight and I wanted to try something different.
When I made these cookies I used Earth Balance margarine and Robin Hood Nutri gluten free all purpose flour. The rest was as you said. My dough before chilling looked heavy and crumbly, like it needed more fat. I chilled for an hour and a half and it stayed about the sane, maybe a little more dense.
I baked for 8mins to test. they stayedfirn balls and didnt flatten out. So I kept them in for 2more mins and they eventually started to crack but again didnt flatten much.
I nice cooled I tested one and am dissapoibted there isn’t much flavour to them.
Might make these again but with alterations.
I’m kind if new to the GF life style, doing it to help improve my over all health and to tame my autoimmune disorders. Your site is a blessing! I love that you have incorporated so many “real life” recipes into a GF version! Thank you so much. My only question is, you mentioned that these can be refrigerated for up to two days. Can GF batters, like cookie doughs, be frozen for future use?
Thanks for your help!
These are some of the most beautiful GF cookies I’ve made. My dough was chilled for 2 hours and the cookies stayed nice and puffy all through cooling. A bit sticky to roll into balls, but I managed that by putting a little potato starch on mt palms every couple cookies. Also, they weren’t fragile to transfer to cooling racks. I did use parchment paper, but I took them off when they were still pretty warm. I used my own flour blend with millet, sweet rice, and potato starch. Only improvement I’d make would be to see if I could get them to be a little less “cakey” next time. But I like doughier cookies.
what is the final texture supposed be like? I doubled the recipe and it looks like corn meal.
Carrie, Eeek! Shouldn’t be like corn meal at all. I’d double-check that you got all the ingredients in the exact amount and that you used a good all-purpose gluten-free flour. The dough should be just like the smooth cookie dough batter you remember from before!
It tasted like a REAL snickerdoodle cookie! I substituted cream of tartar for baking powder, and I used Bob Mills gluten free all purpose baking flour. Loved the cookies! Thank you!
Did you have to use the xantham gum if use all gf all purpose flour?
@Helen, I didn’t have to, because the gf all purpose I used had xantham gum in it. Try checking the ingredients if you’re unsure
Oh my!!! I can’t thank you enough!!! Can’t wait to try these…my favorite cookie…although we called them Roly Polies when I was growing up
hey instead of gluten free flour, can you just use regular all purpose flour? is xanthan gum essential in this?
Crystal,
The xanthan gum is only essential when using gluten-free flour. You can use your regular all-purpose flour in place of the gf flour in this recipe and omit the xanthan gum. Enjoy!
For people like me, who are too impatient to chill dough, the cookies will still come out tasty. They will be extremely flat, but they aren’t too crunchy or anything. Yum! Just sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over top before cooking.
Also, you can cook some of the dough without chilling, put the rest in the fridge and cook it up properly later.
Jennifer, So glad you liked them. Great tips too! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Michelle,
Any idea if egg replacer would work in this recipe or suggestions for a specific egg replacer?
Thanks!
Jacqui,
I haven’t tried this with any egg replacer. If you have a favorite egg replacer that works well in cookie recipes, just give it a try here!
I used the egg replacer and also cCountry Crock Plant butter with Olive oil and came out great. Oh I used King Auther Gluten free flour so has already xantham gum in it. They are delicious and my husband likes them also.
Lovely. Jules flour is not available here in Ireland, so I used Doves Farm gluten & wheat free it contains the Xantham gum for anyone trying them here.
Sharron,
Thanks for commenting and letting us know what flour blend worked well for you. I’m so glad you got to make these and enjoy them!
Do you know how many grams 2 3/4 of Jules’ flour is?
Stacy, I just went and measured that out and weighed it, and it is 345 grams. Hope that helps! I’ll add it to the recipe too!