Super soft honey snickerdoodles that you’ll want to bake again and again! No chilling required, so you can have fresh honey cookies in under 30 minutes. 🙂
Disclaimer: This honey cookie recipe was developed for an Instagram collaboration with Local Hive Honey. This post also contains affiliate links! Clicking the links are no cost to you at all, but they help me earn commission as part of my income. All of my affiliate links are for products that I truly love using, and wouldn’t share otherwise. Any clicks are really appreciated! <3
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About these honey snickerdoodles
Snickerdoodles are one of my favorite types of cookies. They’re suuuuper soft, cakey, and have a hint of tang because of acidity from the cream of tartar. Plus, they’re rolled in cinnamon sugar, which is one of my favorite combos.
And when you combine regular snickerdoodles + honey, omg.
These honey cookies are light, super soft, and have hints of sweet floral notes. Yet, they’re not heavy and have the perfect amount of sweetness… meaning, it was very easy for me to down a few cookies at once without having that overwhelmingly sweet aftershock. This is because in this recipe, less sugar is used to accommodate for the honey, while also providing a great balance of flavors.
This honey cookie recipe is great for any bee + honey lovers out there. I think it’d be really fun to try out a few differently sourced honey, too. For example, you could try using ones with more floral vs earthy vs fruity notes. It’d be a fun experiment to do with friends and have a little tasting party afterwards! Just make sure to invite me, pls. :'(
So if you’d like to try making cookies with honey, try your hand at this recipe. Let me know how it goes! <3
Happy baking, friends!
Equipment
- Medium bowl
- Large bowl or bowl of stand mixer
- Electric whisk or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment: Since the butter is softened and not melted, it’s easier to use an electric or stand mixer. If you don’t have either, you can still do it by hand, it’ll just take a ‘lil elbow grease!
- Rubber spatula: A rubber spatula helps you scrape the sides and bottom of your mixing bowl, ensuring sure all dry ingredients are incorporated.
- Small cookie scoop: Each cookie dough ball was about 1 ½ tbsp.
- Cookie sheets
- Parchment paper or silicone mats
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- All-purpose flour
- Cream of tartar
- Cinnamon
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Table salt: I use Morton’s.
- Unsalted butter
- Honey: I love using Local Hive Honey!
- Light or dark brown sugar
- Egg
- Vanilla extract
- Granulated sugar: The cookie dough balls are rolled in sugar prior to baking. This adds a thin layer of crispiness + shine on the outside of the cookies, while also providing slight sweetness.
- Fun sprinkles: I decorated my cookies with these bee + daisy sprinkles from Amazon!
How to make soft honey cookies
- Mise en place: aka “put in place”. This French saying simply means measure out all of the ingredients and prep your equipment beforehand. This helps you stay more organized and move more seamlessly in the kitchen.
- Mix butter and sugar: In a large mixing bowl or bowl of stand mixer, beat the softened butter and brown sugar until combined, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl to make sure everything is incorporated.
- Add honey, egg, and vanilla extract: Mix in all of the honey, egg, and vanilla until smooth.
- Mix in dry ingredients: Dump in all of the dry ingredients. Using your rubber spatula, mix the batter together until no dry spots remain.
- Scoop and roll: Scoop 1 ½ tbsp dough balls and roll into cinnamon sugar. Place on lined baking tray and repeat with remaining dough. Space cookies about 2-3 inches apart.
- Bake: Bake at 325°F/162°C for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are completely set.
- Decorate: While the cookies are still warm, plop on decorative bee + daisy sprinkles on top of some of the cookies! After a few minutes, transfer to wire rack to fully cool.
- Store: You can store these cute cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Honey cookie variations
- Try different types of honey: Honey tastes different depending on where it’s sourced from. For example, Local Hive Honey sources honey from ALL over the the USA, so some blends taste more floral, fruity, mild, and vary in color.
- Remove the cream of tartar: Alright alright, so snickerdoodles are KNOWN to have cream of tartar in the dough. This is because it is acidic and adds that iconic tang, but also makes the cookies more cake like. So if you’d like to remove the tang and slightly reduce the cakiness, feel free to omit it. You just won’t have a honey snickerdoodle.
- Add mix-ins: I think it would be fun to add sprinkles throughout the batter, white chocolate chips, or nuts! Again, this isn’t really a snickerdoodle at this point, but why not have fun with variations? That’s what makes baking and cooking SO fun.
Tips for baking these honey snickerdoodles
- Use a kitchen scale: I LOVE using a kitchen scale because it always yields consistent, accurate results when measuring ingredients. However, if you’re measuring your dry ingredients with cups, make sure you follow this tip: gently spoon in the flour into the cup until it’s full, then scrape the excess off using the back of a knife or offset spatula.
- Decorating: I didn’t incorporate the sprinkles into the batter because I only wanted a few to show up on top of the cookie. To make them stick, I added each sprinkle to very freshly baked cookies that were still soft. If you wait too long to add them, then they wont settle into the baked cookie. If this happens, you can use melted chocolate or icing as glue.
FAQs
Yes, you can make this cookie dough ahead and store the dough in the freezer for up to 3 months! I recommend scooping out dough balls and lining the cookies up in neat rows on a lined baking sheet/plate.
Freeze the honey cookie dough balls for about 1-2 hours until firm, then transfer to a freezer storage bag or airtight container. Bake as usual, except add 1-3 more minutes to the bake time.
Sure! I recommend waiting until the cookies are fully cooled, then freezing them in a freezer bag or airtight container with parchment/wax paper separating each cookie for up to 3 months. The parchment/wax paper helps prevent the cookies from sticking.
You can let the honey cookies thaw at room temperature for around 20 minutes. Alternatively, reheat them in the oven at 350°F/177°C for 5 minutes.
Other easy snickerdoodle recipes
I’m so happy that I can add yet another post to my easy snickerdoodle recipes!
Check out the bullet point list below for some more fun, easy snickerdoodle cookies.
- Piggerdoodles (cute pig snickerdoodles!)
- Pumpkin snickerdoodles
- Ube snickerdoodle bears
How to store freshly baked honey cookies
Store the honey cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
I really hope you enjoy my easy honey cookie recipe.
I’ve been wanting to make honey snickerdoodles for some time, and I’m ecstatic with how delicious these came out! If you make these honey cookies, I’d love to see them. You can tag me at #bitesbybianca / @bitesbybianca on Instagram. Enjoy! :~)
📖 Recipe
Honey Snickerdoodles
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Equipment
- 1 medium bowl
- 1 large bowl or bowl of stand mixer
- 1 electric whisk or stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment
- 1 rubber spatula
- parchment paper or silicone mats
- Wire rack
Ingredients
Dry ingredients:
- 1 ½ cups (187.5 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon (3 g) cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon (2 g) cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon (4 g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (2 g) baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon (4.5 g) table salt
Wet ingredients:
- ½ cup (113.5 g) unsalted butter softened
- ¼ cup (55 g) light or dark brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup (84.75 g) honey
- 1 tablespoon (13 g) vanilla extract
- 1 (1) egg
For rolling:
- ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- ½ tablespoon (4 g) cinnamon
Decorations:
Instructions
Make the honey cookie dough:
- Preheat oven to 325°F/162°C and line two baking trays with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients: 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour, 1 tsp cream of tartar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp baking soda, ½ tsp baking powder, and ¾ tsp salt.
- In a large bowl or bowl of stand mixer using the paddle attachment (can alternatively use a hand mixer), cream the ½ cup softened butter and ¼ cup brown sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 1-2 minutes. Scrape bottom and sides of bowl with your rubber spatula.
- Add ¼ cup honey, 1 tbsp vanilla extract, egg, and mix until smooth. Again, scrape bottom and sides of bowl.
- Dump in all of the dry ingredients and mix until no dry spots remain.
Bake cookies:
- In a small bowl, combine granulated sugar and cinnamon. Set aside.
- Use small cookie scoop to gather honey cookie dough into a 1 ½ tbsp ball.
- Roll ball into cinnamon sugar mixture, then place on lined baking sheet.
- Repeat with remaining honey cookie dough, placing the balls about 3-4 inches apart. They will not spread much while baking.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes, or until edges are set. Cookies should look puffy, soft, and golden.
- While they’re still warm, top the cookies with decorative sprinkles.
- Let cool on pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack. Let cool completely.
- Enjoy!
Notes
- I remade this recipe using King Arthur’s gluten-free flour and they were just as delicious!
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.