Name: Cinnamon Cookies
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 1 ½ cups 180 grams all-purpose flour; 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; pinch of salt; ½ cup 113 grams butter; ⅓ cup 67 grams granulated sugar; ⅓ cup 67 grams brown sugar; 1 egg; 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; ¼ cup 50 grams granulated sugar; 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

Nothing says delicious quite like a warm Cinnamon Cookie. These soft, chewy cookies have a crisp outer layer of cinnamon sugar. This quick and easy recipe is great for the holidays or any time you're craving some cinnamon.

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Easy Cinnamon Cookies recipe

There's nothing quite like cinnamon this time of year. I'll take it on everything, please and thank you.

Cinnamon Apple Muffins? Yes. Cinnamon Rolls? Yes yes. Apple Crisp? Yes yes yes. But save some cinnamon for Cinnamon Simple Syrup too!

Cinnamon cookies might be my favorite way to enjoy this warm spice, though. I love baking up Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, but this year I wanted to make them for someone who doesn't like pumpkin. (I know, I know.)

These Cinnamon Cookies are perfect though, and actually a lot easier to make than snickerdoodles. They don't require any cream of tartar, any chill time or rolling in cinnamon sugar! (Instead, the cinnamon is sprinkled over the top for a crackled, crispy texture.)

an arrangement of 1 layer of cinnamon cookies on a white background.

Why you'll love this recipe

You will love this classic cookie recipe. They're great ones for kids to help out with as well.

These cookies are easy and fast to make. No chill time required!
Everyone loves the flavor of cinnamon, and these lightly crunchy cookies don't disappoint.
No specialty ingredients are needed! Not even cream of tartar.
They're a great addition to cookie plates or to take to cookie swaps.

This Cinnamon Cookie recipe would be so good during the holiday season, but you can make these soft cookies anytime! Like these donut cookies, they'd be great ones to bring to a new neighbor or share with friends at a get-together.

Ingredients

These soft and chewy cookies are pretty simple to put together, and you might already have these pantry staples on hand. Here's what you'll need:

all-purpose flour
baking powder
ground cinnamon
a pinch of salt
unsalted butter
granulated sugar
brown sugar
egg
vanilla extract

If you use salted butter, you can skip the salt in this recipe. I prefer to use unsalted butter, though.

You'll also need some parchment paper or a silicone baking mat for these. A cookie scoop is also super helpful!

How to Make Cinnamon Cookies

Putting these easy cookies together is so simple. You can have these cookies prepped and out of the oven in about 30 minutes! That bake time is enough to make them your new favorite cookies, in my opinion.

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line your baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

Take a large mixing bowl and add in the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Mix well and set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (you can also use a hand mixer / electric mixer for this) add the butter and sugar.

Mix on medium speed till it's light and creamy in texture, about 2-3 minutes.

To this mixture, add the wet ingredients — egg and vanilla extract — and beat till the egg is fully incorporated into the mixture.

Add the flour mixture to the egg batter in batches and mix till the dough just comes together.

If the dough feels a little too sticky to handle, you can put the dough in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, covered with plastic wrap. However, chilling isn't totally necessary for these cookies.

balls of cinnamon cookie dough that have been dipped in cinnamon sugar on parchment paper

Scoop out a portion of the dough using an ice cream scoop and roll it in between your palms to shape the dough into balls. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheet.

Make the topping by mixing the white sugar and cinnamon together in a small bowl.

Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar mixture over the prepared cookie dough balls. Be generous! You can't have enough cinnamon, in my opinion.

Bake for 12-15 minutes, until the bottoms have browned. Remove and let them cool for a few minutes in the baking tray and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.

a cinnamon cookie with a bite out leans against a gray plate next to a glass of milk.

Tips & Tricks

Make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature. This ensures that they mix evenly and easily in the batter and will create the most perfect cookie.

Use a cookie scoop to get evenly-sized balls.

Store cinnamon cookies away from other cookies so that the cinnamon aroma of these cookies doesn't affect the flavor of the others.

a closeup of a crackled cookie with cinnamon on top.

How to Store Cookies

These Cinnamon Cookies will stay fresh for about a week when stored in an airtight container at room temperature or for 12-14 days when stored in the fridge.

Cinnamon cookies can be frozen for around 3 months when stored properly in a heavy-duty freezer bag.

To reheat, thaw them for 5-6 hours or overnight at room temperature, and then bake them in a preheated oven at 350°F for 13-14 minutes or until heated.

The Sweetest Season

This recipe is part of The Sweetest Season, a virtual cookie swap co-hosted by Erin of The Speckled Palate and Susannah of Feast + West. Every year, they get a group of food bloggers together to share new holiday cookie recipes with our readers.

This year we are raising money for Cookies 4 Kids' Cancer, which is a recognized 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to funding research for new, innovative and less-toxic treatments for childhood cancer.

Since 2008, Cookies for Kids’ Cancer has granted nearly $18 million to pediatric cancer research in the form of 100+ research grants to leading pediatric cancer centers across the country. From these grants have stemmed 35+ treatments available to kids battling cancer today.

Help us raise money for this important cause! Donate through our fundraising page.

Another exciting thing is that Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is in a matching window with their friends at OXO, meaning OXO will be matching every dollar raised through the end of 2022, up to $100,000. Whatever money we raise will automatically double on our fundraising page!