Elana's Pantry

New York Times Bestselling author Elana Amsterdam founded Elana’s Pantry, the go-to website for easy, healthy, grain-free, Paleo recipes, in 2006

Paleo Snickerdoodles

Paleo Snickerdoodles

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Paleo Snickerdoodles made with low-carb almond flour and antioxidant rich cinnamon are very special. First, they taste amazing. Second, the low-carb ingredients won’t spike your blood sugar. On top of that, cinnamon is a fantastic blood sugar stabilizer, so these cookies are extra healthy!

Paleo Snickerdoodles are a simple, yet delightful cookie made with 8 ingredients. During the past couple of years I’ve received dozens of requests for Paleo Snickerdoodles. In fact, I asked my Facebook fans whether they wanted to see a gluten-free, grain-free snickerdoodle recipe, or an egg-free macaroon recipe. Paleo Snickerdoodles won by close to 100 votes!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about this classic cookie:

A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with butter or oil, sugar, and flour rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough. Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be crisp or soft depending on preference.

My Paleo Snickerdoodles are dairy-free and made without butter, wheat flour, and eggs. If you would like to make vegan snickerdoodles, use agave instead of honey in this easy recipe.

Print Recipe
Paleo Snickerdoodles
Serves:20cookies
Ingredients
Instructions
  1. In a food processor, combine almond flour, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon
  2. Pulse in shortening and honey
  3. Scoop 1 tablespoon of dough, and roll into a ball
  4. Briefly dip ball in a small bowl of water
  5. Roll wet ball in coconut sugar and cinnamon to coat
  6. Place ball on a parchment paper lined baking sheet
  7. Flatten ball with palm of your hand
  8. Bake at 350°F for 7-9 minutes
  9. Cool and serve

If you haven’t yet bought my third cookbook, Paleo Cooking from Elana’s Pantry, you’ll definitely want to check out the search inside feature. This New York Times Best Selling cookbook contains the easiest paleo recipes you’ll ever find!

Here are some of my other healthy Paleo dessert recipes:

Comments

  1. Hi there! I made this recipe, but the cookies just melted to form a sheet of cookie on the pan. I did use coconut oil instead of the shortening, but from the comments on this post, it seemed to work fine. I’m not really sure what I did wrong? I’d love if you could offer some advice! ~ Ana

    Reply

    • Ana, thanks for your comment! My best advice would be to follow the recipe and they will turn out perfectly. When other folks used coconut oil they may also have made further adjustments to the recipe to account for changing it :-)

      Reply

  2. The flavor is great, albeit too sweet for my taste, but despite following the recipe exactly the cookies did not hold together. Dipping them in water went against my logic, I think that step might be to blame. Next time less honey and no water dip.

    Reply

  3. Elana, where could you place the vegan palm oil shortening? Vegan Palm oil shortening was sitting there in my fridge for how long to make that cold. Does it have to be cooler outside by the kitchen window, or shelf? I wonder if I have to place the vegan Palm oil shortening by the kitchen window, or dry area. Please let me know if you could answer this.

    Thanks,
    Dylan

    Reply

    • Hi Dylan, I hope you are well! I keep my palm shortening at room temperature in a cupboard or the pantry :-)

      Reply

      • Hi Elana. I don’t see the directions say that mix the cinnamon and coconut sugar together, or does those 2 ingredients need to separate. Do I need to mix those together, or grab 2 small separate bowls to set up the coconut sugar, and cinnamon?Let me know as possible.

        Thanks,
        Dylan Kaulukou-Chang :-)

        From Oahu, Hawaii

        Reply

  4. I’ve made several times using 4 T melted coconut oil instead the palm shortening. Some how I end up with 18 cookies consistently each time I make them. Yesterday I was out of coconut sugar and used maple sugar instead – just as good. I store them in a container and the next day they are soft and chewy.

    Reply

  5. Anyone used the coconut oil instead of palm shortening? Did it work? Any modifications? I want to try this recipe but don’t have palm shortening and really do not want to use regular butter…I am OK with coconut oil, eggs or applesauce…

    Reply

  6. Butter is not Paleo. Paleo foods have no dairy at all. The only Butter like substance allowed on Paleo is ghee, and even that is only in moderation

    Reply

  7. I can’t wait to try these, any recommendations on a sub for the Palm shortening? I try to avoid anything palm because of the tremendous deforestation and CO2 admission that are created due to the large demand for palm products.

    Reply

    • Hi Mylinda, thanks for your comment and for sharing your concerns. I haven’t tried substituting another ingredient in place of the palm shortening in this recipe. If you do I hope you’ll stop back by and leave a comment to let us know what works!

      Reply

  9. I made these cookies today and they taste awesome!!! Such a simple recipe to follow. I didn’t use food processor, just used a hand blender which created a bit of mess. I get Honeyville blanched almond flour from Costco, they have it for good price. Only substitution i made is, coconut sugar, my son can’t eat coconut so i used regular organic cane sugar and it still worked out good..Me and my husband loved it but my boys find it a bit sweet so next time i will be rolling in the sugar a bit gently..But altogether a 5 star worth recipe!!! Thank you Elana for this great recipe and for all your hard work!!!!

    Reply

  12. I made these tonight and they were a big hit. I used butter, but otherwise, exactly as written. I did use some coconut sugar that I had previously ground up, mostly because I want to use it up. I think I have enough left for another batch so I put it in a jar for next time. I don’t know why I waited so long to try these. My grandson loves cookies and he is a bit cheated since we don’t make a lot of them. I plan to make these again as I love cinnamon but I would love to know what the “cream of tartar” is all about. Some mention using it but not how much and whether you leave out the baking soda or not. I have never made a snickerdoodle so I can’t say how they compare but these are delicious and will go into my recipe rotation for a sweet treat.

    Reply

  13. Just made these with coconut oil (not melted, but solid form) and they were delicious! The food processor melds it all together.

    Reply

    • Hi Cindy!

      Did you use an equal amount of Coconut oil to the shortening amount recommended or did it need tweaking? I’m getting ready to make this for a cookie exchange next week and wanted to use what I have in pantry stock. :)

      Also if someone used cream of tartar could they let me know if it was equal to the baking soda as well?

      Thanks so much all! I’m new to paleo/gluten-free cooking for myself and this batch is for one of my co-workers who has a daughter with an allergy to dairy and eggs!

      Reply

  14. I finally got around to making these, and they were delishious! I used cream of tarter rather than baking soda, because I agree, without that its just a sugar cookie. My husband loved them, and ate 4 right away.

    Reply

  16. These snickerdoodle cookies did not dissapoint, for an egg-free, (processed) sugar free, grain free treat, I can’t believe people still make these types of cookies the traditional way! Mad kudos, you are truly amazing!

    I’ve linked to your blog a few times, mainly because I can’t praise your work enough! Being allergic to egg, and trying to live a paleo lifestyle, traditional baking is not really a possibility. Thank you for all the hard work and time you put into your passion! God Bless!

    Reply

  17. I wanted to let you know what a blessing this recipe has been. My Mom was diagnosed with brain cancer last January. She doesn’t eat a great deal, but she enjoys eating these cookies with her tea. I’m thrilled that they have protein from the almond flour, but don’t have a lot of suar. She’s even shared them with her naturopathic oncologist. :-) Another blessing, she is currently cancer free!

    Reply

  18. What are our chances of ever seeing the recipe for eggless macaroons? I would swoon for a vegan macaroon.

    Reply

  19. This looks great, I’m curious why you left out eggs and butter, both of which are not only paleo friendly but a huge component in paleo cooking and baking. You’re the expert though so I’m sure the recipe is great without them anyways!

    Reply

    • Katie, I wanted to create cookie that would work for people on grain-free, gluten-free diets, and egg-free, dairy-free diets too :-)

      Reply

  20. We just made snickerdoodles, and they were delish but on the crunchy side. I am going to try coconut oil instead of the shortening, I LOVE a soft gluten free cookie! -Kristin from

    Reply

  21. what could I use in place of vegan shortening for it to remain paleo- coconut butter or oil??

    Reply

  22. Ok, so I have never actually tasted a snickerdoodle but was really wondering what all the talk is about. I made these tonight and they were amazing!! Reminding me of warm gingerbread crossed with a cinnamon doughnut. Totally yummy, they came out amazing!

    My husband just added in that they taste like those caramelized coffee cookies

    Reply

  23. A total hit. Dangerously delish!! Used brown sugar instead of coconut sugar as it’s what i had…

    Reply

  28. My FAVORITE cookie! I immediately made these when I saw the recipe…we ate the whole batch! I subbed in butter for the shortening and they turned out great!

    Reply

  29. Elana, this is a flashback to childhood.

    I love snickerdoodles and their sweetness and cinnamon flavor. They are definitely a guilty pleasure of mine.

    This recipe takes them from guilty pleasure to acceptable treat. Thank you for that!

    I think that we all need to indulge in our sweet tooth or other weaknesses from time to time. Denying them just makes us want it more.

    It is all about moderation, eating a balanced diet, and staying active. This way we can enjoy the occasional treat but also know that we are doing the best that we can for ourselves and our bodies.

    Reply

  30. Fantastic, and thank you! I like this recipe better than the others because you don’t use eggs–we are allergic to wheat & all grains, dairy, and eggs. I’ve been using a variation on this recipe (I call it Sugar&Spice cookies) with great success. I used your recipe this morning and, as I said before, it’s Fantastic! Thanks, very very much, for your blog & cookbooks.

    Reply

  31. Those look absolutely gorgeous! Can’t wait for my girl and me to whip up a batch of these guys…thanks as always, Elana!

    Reply

  32. I’m yet to eat a snickerdoodle, I love lots of cinnamon but my husband doesn’t, he can always tell if there is even a pinch in my baking. I cook with butter so I might try these and sub butter for the shortening. Thank you.

    Reply

  33. I love you, Elana, but every time a snickerdoodle recipe is published using baking soda instead of cream of tartar, an angel loses its wings. These are sugar cookies with cinnamon, not snickerdoodles. I know, I’m splitting hairs, but this is my favorite cookie. I get passionate.

    Reply

    • You’re right, and you’re funny, Ann! And I think I need to bake cookies now… with cream of tartar, for proper snickerdoodliness.

      Reply

  34. These are terrific, Elana! Snickerdoodles are one of my family’s favorite cookies of all time. I think these will be great to take camping this weekend. :-)

    xo,
    Shirley

    Reply

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