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Chewy Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles with pockets of cinnamon swirl and a sweet cream cheese icing. These are yummmmy! Homemade snickerdoodle cookies, made with browned butter, chunks of cinnamon that melt into wonderful swirls, and a small pinch of flaky sea salt. Each cookie dough ball is rolled with cinnamon sugar for that classic snickerdoodle finish before baking to perfection, then topped with creamy icing. There’s nothing not to love about these sweet Christmas cookies.
Cookies! Tis’ the season! And man oh man, I have baked up a lot of cookies this week. I had quite a few failures until I landed on these. But these – oh these are extra special and worth all the testing time.
Oh, how I adore these cinnamon cookies. They’re Christmas time in a nice big, chewy, snickerdoodle(ish) cookie. They’re a new holiday favorite.
Here’s the story, I’ve been testing a lot of cookies! And I am finally close to completing my 2022 Christmas cookie box, which I’m excited to share soon. But all the cookies came with a lot of failed recipes.
Failed recipes are sad in the moment, but often times they lead me to some of my very favorite recipes. After I worked and worked on a new gingerbread recipe, I decided to completely switch gears and move on to cinnamon cookies.
I just needed to forget about gingerbread for the moment. Once I did, I dreamt these up. They’re my favorite chewy snickerdoodle cookies. Swirled with chunks of buttery cinnamon and notes of brown butter and vanilla. Then iced with creamy icing. I envisioned these like a cinnamon roll cookie, so the icing was needed.
Cream cheese icing, but not too sweet. Tis’ so delicious glazed over each cookie.
Here are details
Make the cinnamon swirl first. It’s just brown sugar mixed with butter and cinnamon. Exactly what you’d roll a cinnamon roll up with!
Now crumble the cinnamon into chunks and then freeze. It’s not fancy at all.
While the chunks freeze, make the cookies.
Start by browning half of your butter. It’s one stick of browned butter, and one stick of soft. This gives you the flavor of browned butter but leaves you with a cookie that has great texture too. Shocker, I know, I added browned butter (yes, I may have a browned butter fetish). But the browned butter really does add so much to cookies. It’s worth the extra step.
Then add brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix together, then add all the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, and salt.
By now the chunks should be frozen, mix them into the cookie dough and scoop out all your cookies. In classic snickerdoodle form, take each dough ball and roll through cinnamon sugar.
I do a light roll as I didn’t want the cookies to be overly sweet. Bake them up until they are barely set on the edge. Remove the pan and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. The cookies continue to bake on the warm sheet.
For the icing. I suppose it’s not needed, but it’s certainly delicious, and I think it balances all the cinnamon in the cookie.
Cream cheese, milk, vanilla, and sugar. It’s thick and creamy, just the way we want it!
These are soft and gooey in the center. The best kind of cookie. I’m not normally such a decadent cookie person, but as I always say, I like to really do it up for the holidays. They only come once a year, so let’s just have fun and enjoy every minute of the season.
It’s cheesy, but the holidays do only come once a year!
Looking for other Christmas cookies? Here are my favorites:
Easy Vanilla Bean Christmas Lights Cookies
Easy Hot Chocolate Lace Cookies
Lastly, if you make these Chewy Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Chewy Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles
Servings: 20 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 192 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
Cinnamon Swirl
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Cookies
- 2 sticks (1 cup) salted butter, at room temperature
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Icing
- 2 ounces cream cheese
- 2-3 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- 1. To make the cinnamon swirl. In a bowl, mix the butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Line a small baking sheet with parchment. Crumble/tear the cinnamon mix over the baking sheet, creating small chunks, no more than 2 teaspoons in size. They should be small like chips. Freeze 10 minutes, until firm.2. To make the cookies. Add 1 stick butter to a skillet set over medium heat. Cook until the butter begins to brown, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl. Freeze 10-15 minutes, but no longer.3. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.4. In a bowl, beat together the remaining stick of butter, the cooled browned butter, and the brown sugar until combined. Beat in the eggs, 1 at a time, until combined. Add the vanilla, beating until creamy. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the frozen cinnamon chunks. 5. Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Roll the dough into rounded tablespoon size balls and then roll through the cinnamon sugar. Place 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. 6. Bake for 8 minutes, rotate the pan and bake another 1-3 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to set on the edges but still doughy in the center. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit. 7. Meanwhile, make the icing. Melt the cream cheese in the microwave, stirring until smooth, 15-20 seconds. Whisk in the milk and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar, whisking to combine. Add milk, if needed, to thin. Spread or drizzle each cookie with icing. Eat warm or let cool and store in an airtight container for up to 4 days. The icing will harden/dry enough to stack.
Notes
Freezing: the cookie dough balls can be frozen for up to 3 months. Then just thaw and bake as directed.
These cookies are delicious! It’s like eating coffee cake in cookie form! Yum!! I baked 4 cookies so we could test them, and freeze the remaining dough for Christmas. Funny enough 2 cookies turned out like your pics, and 2 puffed up and were a bit cakey, all baked on the same cookie sheet. ALL equally delicious though! Thanks for my new favorite cookie recipe!!
Hey Meredith,
Happy Friday!!☃️ I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and your comment! xT
Mine came out a bit cakey and crumbly, but still very tasty. I made them for a work cookie tray and they were the first to go. Crowd pleaser, despite the texture. Also, I did not include the cream cheese frosting, just my own preference. Will make again and try for a different texture, but flavor is there.
Hey Robyn,
Happy Friday!!☃️ I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and your comment! xT
These were SO delicious!! I made sure to keep my dough super cold based on other comments and realized that maybe it’s the size of the cinnamon frozen chunks that matters most. Smaller chunks are less likely to spill out of the cookies.
Hey Jennifer,
Happy Holidays!!☃️ I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and your comment! xT
Can I use regular table salt?
Hi Adrienne,
I would suggest using kosher salt:) Let me know if you give this recipe a try, I hope you love it! xT
My dough is so wet still. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Maybe adding a bit more of a description to the mixing steps on what the batter should look like. I’m a very green baker and I’m afraid these aren’t going to turn out.
Hey Jasmine,
Was there anything you adjusted in the recipe? I would try popping your dough into the fridge for a bit to see if that helps at all! Let me know if I can do anything else! xT
I followed the recipe exactly as written and the cookies came out perfectly. So delicious with a slightly crispy edge from the cinnamon brown sugar butter bits. YUM!
Hey Meghan,
Happy Holidays!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed and appreciate you giving it a try! 🎄❄️
This has become a must in my cookie recipes. Was a hit at a recent holiday party I just went to and my husband who is not a cookie guy at all can’t get enough of them! He keeps eating them saying they are the best and rival his mom’s cookies. This is a huge compliment!
I did make a few minor adjustments to the recipe. Didn’t add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the cookie mix as I felt the first batch was a bit salty. And found chilling the dough once the cinnamon swirl was added for at least an hour made handling the dough easier and also created that chewy yet fluffy texture I was going for.
Hey Jessica,
Happy Holidays!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed and appreciate you giving it a try! 🎄❄️
My first attempt came out cakey. I followed the recipe exactly and they wouldn’t spread. I make chocolate chip cookies more than I’d like to admit and that recipe allows for the spread and the gooey center… perhaps omitting that last 1/4 cup of flour might help? What do you think?
Hey Heather,
Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try! These are definitely different than chocolate chip cookies. Did you chill you dough at all? That can prevent them from spreading. Let me know! xT
These cookies were so amazing! Like gone next day type of amazing. However, this is the second I’ve made your cookies & both have come out so fluffy and not like what’s shown at all. I do live in Southern CA though so elevation/weather is very different here. Is there something I need to adjust to achieve that goey goodness look?
Hey Amanda,
Happy Holidays!!☃️ I love to hear that this recipe was a winner, thanks so much for making it and your comment! Try tapping your baking sheet on the counter for a flatter cookie! xT
I wanted to make this in the form of a big cookie skillet. What temp and time would you suggest?
Hey Courtney,
Sorry, I’ve never tested that with this recipe so I don’t have exact instructions and I’m not sure how it would turn out for you! So sorry! xT
Can I use regular table salt and do they freeze well after baking with the icing?
Hi Adrienne,
I would stick with kosher salt and you can freeze without the icing. I hope this helps! xT
This is a brilliant recipe! Like a perfect marriage of a snickerdoodle and a cinnamon bun. These were so good straight out of the oven, and equally delicious at room temp with the glaze. Will make again for my work Christmas party this week.
SO. GOOD. ☺️
Hey Molly,
Happy Wednesday!!❄️ So glad to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for making it and sharing your feedback! xT
This is a really bad recipe. The cookies do not flatten like the photo whatsoever and the butter drizzle seeps all over the pan when baking.
mine look identical, lol… maybe you just didn’t do it the way she said.
Sounds like trolling and user error – and WTF is “butter drizzle”? There isn’t even “butter drizzle” in the recipe.
Hi Natalie,
Thanks for giving these cookies a try, so sorry to hear you had some issues. Let me know if there is anyway that I can help! xT
Hands down, thumbs up, the best cookies I have ever had. 😍 I’ve always loved cinnamon rolls, and this is like that, but in perfect cookie form with heavenly cinnamon swirls. The house smelled divine while they were baking, and when they were ready it was like Christmas came early. The icing was lovely, but the cookies themselves were out of this world, even without it. Thank you!! Now I just have to keep calm and not eat the whole batch at once. 😅
Hey Margaret,
Happy Holidays!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you!🎁🎅
These cookies are a great idea in theory but I believe the execution as explained in the directions leaves a lot to be desired. It creates a very wet dough which spreads and leaks out the butter if it’s not chilled. The cookies themselves are not the most flavorful and are only saved by the icing. Although my family enjoyed them, I will not be making them again because they did not stand up to my expectations.
Hi Olivia,
Thanks for giving these cookies a try and sharing your feedback, so sorry to hear you didn’t love them! Please let me know if there is anything that I can help with! xx
How did you make yours so flat and thin? I love that style. Mine are very rounded, even after flattening slightly before baking. Any tips?
Hey Sara,
Thanks for giving the recipe a try! Have you tried tapping your baking sheet on the counter? That usually helps to get them flatter. I hope this helps! xT
I made these and they tasted delicious! The only thing I had trouble with was the frozen cinnamon pieces in the dough. When I baked them, the cinnamon chunks seemed to ooze out of the cookie. Any recommendations on how to prevent that from happening?
Hey Kara,
Thanks so much for making these cookies, I love to hear that they were tasty! Next time, try just using 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon chunks. I hope this helps! xx
Seriously amazing. The trick to these is to flatten them a bit with something flat like the bottom of a cup and then stick the baking sheet in the freezer for 2 to 3 minutes before baking. If you don’t chill them briefly, the buttery bits will melt all over the pan. Once I figured this out they were perfection!
Hey Mollie,
Happy Holidays!! Thanks so much for making this recipe, I love to hear that it turned out well for you!🎁🎅