My family is obsessed with these chocolate snickerdoodle cookies! We combine our favorite snickerdoodle and chocolate cookie recipes and coat them in cinnamon sugar. They are seriously so good!
One of my favorite holiday cookies is snickerdoodles! I love the cinnamon sugar coating and the tangy flavor from the cream of tartar. I love them so much that I created a chocolate version. These chocolate snickerdoodle cookies are chewy, chocolatey, tangy, and delicious.
I can’t wait for you to try cinnamon sugar-coated chocolate cookies. They are always a hit with my family and friends. For more holiday cookies, see our chewy chocolate cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies (another favorite), and these easy chocolate chip cookies.
Key Ingredients
- Flour: I use all-purpose flour. Some bakers love using bread flour to make their cookies chewier. If you want to experiment with it, the dough will be drier, so consider adding a tablespoon or two of milk.
- Cream of Tartar: This is the key to what sets snickerdoodles apart from other cookies. This acidic powder gives snickerdoodles their signature tangy flavor and chewy texture. I don’t recommend leaving it out. I buy it in the spice aisle of the grocery store.
- Baking Soda: It helps our cookies rise. It reacts to the cocoa powder and cream of tartar in this recipe.
- Butter: It’s the reason these cookies taste so incredible. If you use salted butter, remove the salt called for in the recipe below. The butter needs to be at room temperature for this recipe.
- Sugar and Vanilla: I use granulated sugar, and the vanilla adds flavor and richness.
- Eggs: They add moisture and improve the flavor of our cookie dough. Room-temperature eggs are best. If you forget to take them out beforehand, place them in a bowl of lukewarm water for a few minutes.
- Chocolate Chips: For this recipe, use your favorite chocolate. I’ve used semi-sweet chocolate chips in the photos, but milk, dark, and even white chocolate are all great. You can also chop your favorite chocolate bar instead of using chips.
- Cinnamon Sugar: It’s easy to make your cinnamon sugar by mixing granulated sugar with ground cinnamon. I make mine pretty heavy on the cinnamon. The ratio is shared in the recipe below. If you have any leftovers, consider stirring it into oatmeal the next day!
How to Make Chocolate Snickerdoodles
Like classic snickerdoodles, these chocolate cookies begin by beating butter and sugar until fluffy. Eggs are added, and then we beat in a mixture of all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and some salt.
The cream of tartar and baking soda puff up the cookies in the oven and deflate just enough to make those crinkly tops seen in the photo. The cream of tarter also adds a welcomed tanginess that cuts through the rich combination of butter, sugar, and cocoa powder.
I love adding lots of chocolate chips, and then we chill the dough for at least 30 minutes. I know chilling cookie dough is a bummer, and I totally get why you want cookies right now, but I promise it’s worth it. Thirty minutes will do the trick, but you can actually keep this dough (wrapped well) in the fridge for up to 3 days!
While it chills, the flour can absorb moisture from the eggs and butter. The dough also firms up a little making it easy to roll into balls for baking.
Once chilled, we make cinnamon sugar (heavy on the cinnamon) and roll the dough balls around until well coated. Then we bake the cookies until they have puffed a little and the tops look set. As they cool, the puffed cookies fall a bit back into themselves, but that’s what creates the unique crinkly tops and chewy texture. They are so good!
Chocolate Snickerdoodles
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
Chocolate and cinnamon are so wonderful together, especially in the form of these chewy, cinnamon sugar-coated chocolate snickerdoodle cookies. We recommend chilling the dough for 30 minutes or so. This cookie dough is a little sticky, so the chill helps make rolling the dough into balls and then into the cinnamon sugar easy. It also improves the flavor and texture of the cookies in the end.
You Will Need
Chocolate Cookies2 ½ cups (325g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (42g) unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs at room temperature
1 cup (170g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, 6 ounces
Cinnamon Sugar1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
Directions
- Make Cookie Dough
1Sift (or whisk) the flour, cocoa powder, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt together, then set aside.
2Using a handheld mixer at medium speed in a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy for 3 to 4 minutes. (You can also use a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.)
3Reduce speed to low. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4Scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl, then add the flour mixture in three parts, mixing until it disappears.
5Stir in chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and chill the dough for at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days.
- Bake Cookies
1Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or use silicon baking mats.
2In a small bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.
3Shape heaping tablespoon-sized mounds of cookie dough into balls. Roll in the cinnamon-sugar mixture and place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. (A medium cookie scoop is helpful here.)
4Bake the cookies until they have puffed a little and the tops look set, 8 to 10 minutes.
5Cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. (The cookies will fall slightly as they cool.)
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- Storing: Baked and cooled cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 to 3 days.
- Freezing cookie dough: You can freeze this cookie dough. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Scoop and roll individual dough balls and place onto the baking sheet (they can be close together). Then, place in the freezer until hard, about 30 minutes. Transfer frozen dough balls to an airtight container or plastic bag.
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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I made these to surprise my wife . She loved the spicy chocolate cookies we tasted out west so I modified this recipe slightly.I used Hershey’s special DARK cocoa added 1/4 tsp of Cayenne pepper plus 1/8 tsp of ground black pepper and then just put a few chocolate chips in the center of each dough ball (for a chocolate center) instead of chips throughout the batter. They turned out fabulous! Chocolate cinnamon with just a hint of a spicy after taste! Yummy!!
My family loved them! Thank you! Discovered your site a few months ago and it is now my go-to site for wonderful food!
5 stars. Awesome! Baked these for a friend & co-workers birthday, huge hit! Everyone loved them and I got several “best cookie ever” comments. If you like to eat the dough, you’re in for a treat, it is so good! I used a full bag of Guittard 63% chocolate chips and white whole wheat flour (the only nod to heathy, and it’s the only flour I use)
I have made these and followed the recipient to the T. Only thing is that the never come out like they look in the picture. They are more like little brownies. Good little brownies but would like for them to look like cookies. Any ideas?
These were very, very tasty! Reminded me of the brownies I make reminiscent of Mexican chocolate. One thing, I didn’t like the pasty feeling left on my fingers from the large amount of cinnamon in the coating when I ate them. So next time, I will likely add cinnamon to the dough and scale it back in my coating similar to my usual snickerdoodle recipe. These will show up in my regular cookie rotation.
Thanks so much for this recipe. I love it! I was looking for a chocolate cookie recipe to use for some left over cinnamon chips I had and this was perfect! I used 10oz total of cinnamon chips and semi sweet chocolate. So wonderful!
If I freeze the dough, does it have to thaw before baking, or do I just add a little time to the baking time?
We bake straight from frozen, just add a few more minutes to the bake time.
Do you roll the unbaked dough in the cinnamon sugar before freeze them?
Yes.
can i replace cream of tarter ?
Hi there, Unfortunately, we don’t know of a good substitute for cream of tarter. The cream of tarter and baking soda work together in this recipe to puff the cookies up in the oven. It also adds a tanginess to the cookies.
I made this recipe and instead of using cocoa powder i used instant coffee, turned out amazing! and threw in some white chocolate chips also with the dark chocolate. But the time to cook them is more like 14-15 minutes for mine.
Oh, I want to lick my screen! These look delicious! Pinning
I love cookies! This would be perfect with coffee… I want one.
they look delish!
I actually don’t think I’ve ever had chocolate and cinnamon together before! Therefore I must try these. They look lovely!
Oh, you must give it a try then 🙂