Every winter break, my high school marching band boarded five big charter buses and drove south for a trip. One year we participated in the Rose Parade; another two, we competed in the Fiesta Bowl marching band competition held the day before the football game.
On the way home from those big events, we always stopped at Disneyland. Our band director arranged for us to march down Main Street and weave around the rides, playing holiday tunes for all of the theme park guests to enjoy.
Before and after the parade, we ran around the park, standing in lines for Pirates of the Caribbean, screaming on the Matterhorn, and spinning wilding in circles on the Tea Cups.
We really worked up an appetite dashing between rides to fit in as many as we possibly could, so Disneyland kindly gave us each a $10 meal voucher in exchange for the parade. Most years, we spent it on the world’s best pizza from Pizza Port (that crust… ohmygosh it’s the softest and chewiest you’ll ever eat!), while a few kids branched out and bought turkey legs bigger than my head.
One year, we craved sugar and spent our entire vouchers at the Blue Ribbon Bakery and Candy Palace on Main Street. We watched the workers slicing fudge and dipping caramel apples, then browsed through the various lollipops and chocolates. But my favorites were always the brownies and cookies from the bakery, especially the snickerdoodles. They were incredibly soft and chewy… And bigger than my entire hand. I never shared!
When those memories resurfaced this past week while watching a commercial for Disneyland on TV, a fierce craving for snickerdoodles hit. As I pulled out the butter from the fridge and spotted the eggnog carton, I decided to make my own holiday variation and created these Eggnog Snickerdoodles instead!
They’re cookie #2 of Cookie Week on Amy’s Healthy Baking! We made rainbow chocolate chip cookies before—the butteriest healthy cookies you’ll ever try—and still to come are minty, spiced, and classic treats. Stay tuned!
My #1 Tip for these Eggnog Snickerdoodles is to make sure you measure the flour correctly. Use one of two options: a light hand with the spoon-and-level method or a kitchen scale. I highly recommend the latter! This is the inexpensive kitchen scale that I own, and I use it to make every recipe on this blog. It’s worth its weight in gold because it ensures that your baked goods turn out with the perfect taste and texture every time!
In these cookies, I completely replaced the eggs with eggnog. And then added a little bit more. I wanted to make sure you really tasted the festive drink! I actually tested these with Silk’s holiday nog, which is completely vegan friendly. If you go that route and replace the butter with Earth Balance Buttery Spread, these cookies are entirely vegan too. (And perfect for my brother who’s allergic to eggs!)
With ¼ cup of eggnog, the cookie dough is very wet, so chilling is mandatory. I’ve tried chilling for 30 minutes and for up to 2 hours. Either way, the cookie dough never fully stiffens, so rolling it is going to be a somewhat sticky affair.
My best advice? Use a spoon and spatula (or a cookie scoop!) to drop a rounded mound of cookie dough directly into the spiced sugar. Turn the cookie dough around until it’s covered; then roll it between your palms to shape it into a ball. That thin layer of sugar on the outside mostly prevents it from sticking to your hands.
Because I just love cinnamon and nutmeg, I dropped mine back into the sugar to roll again. Seriously you guys… Do the double roll! It creates a cute glittery coating on the cookies, and it adds a tiny crunchy touch, which beautifully complements the extra chewy insides.
I brought two dozen of these Eggnog Snickerdoodles to my guy’s family’s Thanksgiving dinner. As soon as I set them down, one of his uncles immediately grabbed three from the plate to much on while we waited for the turkey to rest.
I’m not the only one with no self-control around these… They’re that good!
And when you make your own, remember to snap a picture and share it on Instagram using #amyshealthybaking and tagging @amyshealthybaking IN the photo itself! (That guarantees I’ll see your picture! ?) I’d love to see your snickerdoodles and feature them in my Sunday Spotlight series!
| Eggnog Snickerdoodles | | Print |
- for the cookies
- 1 cup (120g) all-purpose flour (measured correctly)
- ¾ tsp cornstarch
- ¾ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ⅛ tsp salt
- 2 tbsp (28) unsalted butter, melted
- ¼ cup (60mL) light or dairy-free eggnog, warmed to room temperature
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ¼ cup (48g) granulated sugar
- ¼ cup (52g) light brown sugar
- for the coating
- 3 tbsp (36g) granulated sugar
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ⅛ tsp ground nutmeg
- To prepare the cookies, whisk together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together the butter, eggnog, and vanilla. Stir in the granulated and brown sugars. Add in the flour mixture, stirring until barely incorporated. Chill the cookie dough for at least 30 minutes, or up to 3 hours. (If chilling longer than 3 hours, cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap to avoid letting it dry out.)
- Preheat the oven to 350°F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
- To prepare the coating, stir together the sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a small bowl.
- Using a spoon and spatula or a cookie scoop, drop one portion of cookie dough into rounded mounds in the bowl of spiced sugar. Rotate it until its fully coated; then roll it between your palms into a ball. Drop it back in the spiced sugar, coat again, and place on the prepared baking sheet. If the cookie dough was chilled longer than 1 hour, flatten the cookie dough balls slightly.
- Bake the cookies at 350°F for 9-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
Make sure the eggnog is warmed to room temperature. Otherwise, it will quickly chill the melted butter and make it re-solidify. If this happens, microwave the mixture (in a microwave-safe bowl!) for 8-12 seconds, or until the butter re-melts.
For a vegan version, substitute Earth Balance Buttery Spread in place of the butter, and use holiday “nog” from Silk or So Delicious.
If the cookies did not spread while baking, there was too much flour in the dough. It's very important to measure the flour correctly using the spoon and level method or a kitchen scale. If the flour is scooped directly from the container using a measuring cup, you'll end up with 1.5 times as much flour in your cookie dough, which will make the cookies dry and cakey, as well as prevent the cookies from spreading.
If your cookie dough seems too dry in comparison the cookie dough in the video (in the blog post above the recipe), mix in additional eggnog 1 teaspoon at a time until your cookie dough resembles the texture of the cookie dough in the video after chilling. You can skip the chilling step and bake the cookies right away.
{vegan, low fat, low calorie}
More eggnog cookie recipes created by other food bloggers…
Soft and Chewy Eggnog Cookies by Life, Love & Sugar
Eggnog Cookies with Eggnog Glaze by Baked Bree
Eggnog Sugar Cookies by Crème de la Crumb
Melt-In-Your-Mouth Eggnog Cookies by Cooking Classy
Oh MY GOSH!!!! These are soooo yummy!! Thanks for the measuring tip. They came out perfect!! This recipe is a keeper for sure!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the snickerdoodles Rina! Happy holidays! 🙂
Well, I followed the measuring technique and the batter definitely does not have enough liquid in it. I’m going to try once more, adding more eggnog at the end to see if I can get the right consistency… Very disappointing though, since it seems like a pretty simple recipe that should turn out if you following the measuring instructions. I used a food scale to measure the flour and the sugars. 🙁
Just made a second batch… still not the right texture. So, I added egg nog by eye to see if I could get a similar texture to your video. Is it possible there is a typo?? Someone mentioned a typo, but I didn’t see a response to that comment. I haven’t baked any of the dough yet, but will see what happens after both batches rest in the fridge! I ended up taking the first batch out of the fridge to try and give it some more liquid, too. Hopefully my fixes work well enough, since I have a cookie exchange tomorrow night! :/
Well, the first batch baked up a little cake-y and flat. They are edible, but not something I am proud to share for a cookie exchange. I think you need even more detail in this recipe. The measuring tip is nice, but evidently not enough to get the cookies right!
Second batch equally bad… The pictures on your blog look beautiful, but the result here is nothing like that. It’s really terrible. 🙁 I think I need to stick with regular cookies instead of low-fat. I’d rather eat the real deal if it’s not going to turn out like advertised, even when following the directions… Sorry Amy, but this recipe was a big disappointment.
Hi Amy,
Even though I love your snickerdoodle cookies, I don’t have a weight scale to measure out the ingredients. They came out awesome as I mentioned to you before in the facebook comments. For future baking, how do I measure the ingredient , Cornstarch and baking powder at 3/4 a tsp for easier measuring?
P.S. I made the Betty Crocker version of Snickerdoodles when I was in high school years ago and the difference your recipe has a softer bite that is great tasting.. Also I’ll try Silk Soymilk very vanilla in substitution for the Silk Eggnog when out of season. For the Christmas season, I dyed the sugar Christmas colors red and green and it came out nice!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Michelle! I love your idea of dying the sugar Christmas colors; that sounds so fun and festive! 🙂 For measuring the cornstarch and baking powder, I either use a ¼ measuring teaspoon 3 times or one ¼ measuring teaspoon and one ½ teaspoon. I’d love to hear how the Silk very vanilla soy milk version of these cookies turns out for you!
I really want to try these but am certain finding eggnog around this time of year will be tough. Is there something I can substitute the eggnog with until the holiday season comes around again? Also, way to stay professional with the rude comments. I was shocked to see such negativity, as I have made some incredible recipes from your blog!! Keep up the good work!! I truly appreciate you and your site!!
You’re so sweet — thank you SO much Diana! Your kind words mean the world to me! ♥ I can think of two good substitutions, one a little more “fun” than the other. 😉 If you’re a coffee drinker and take your coffee with cream, you could substitute half creamer and half milk for the eggnog. It’d be fun to try different flavors of creamer! (I’ve seen some for cinnamon, caramel, hazelnut, and even crème brûlée!) My second recommendation would be to use cashew milk (because it’s thicker than other milks and has a consistency similar to eggnog) and possibly increase the spices by just a hint to compensate. I’d love to hear what you try and how the cookies turn out! 🙂
OMG!!! I made these today and they were A-MAZING!!! I took these to my Bible Study group and didn’t even try one before I showed up, which was brave! However, I concluded since the dough was so delicious, I assumed they had to be scrumptious cooked too, which they were!! 🙂 I couldn’t find egg-nog so I used a salted caramel half and half creamer and me oh my, these were a hit and had few left on the cookie plate afterwards!! I took a picture of all of us enjoying these delightful treats!! If you would like a copy, please let me know!! 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Diana!! That means a LOT to me that you didn’t try one before you brought them to share with your friends — I’m truly touched that you think that highly of my recipes! ❤️ The salted caramel creamer sounds absolutely wonderful. I’d love to see a picture!! 🙂
Have you tried to make the cookies with full fat egg nog and was it successful?
I tried them tonight with full-fat eggnog and I think they are great! The dough is VERY VERY STICKY, and even though I used a cookie scoop mine didn’t come out very uniform, but the flavor, texture and shape were perfect! Highly recommend weighing both flour AND both sugars!!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the cookies Chelsea! And thanks for sharing that they worked with full-fat eggnog. I really appreciate it! 🙂
Full-fat eggnog will work! 🙂 I can’t wait to hear what you think of the cookies Jenn!
2016: Silk changed their holiday eggnog. They don’t sell Silk Nog any more (which was soy based). They sell an Almond holiday nog that I hate. It doesn’t taste at all like the original Silk Nog; and oddly they called this new almond nog “original” which is confusing.
The new nog tastes strongly like artificial vanilla and has a lot of sugar. I called to complain and they sent me a check for my money back.
I recommend that, if you guy the new Almond nog, you try it before making cookies with it in case you don’t like it.
I appreciate you sharing your insight about trying the eggnog before making cookies Jennifer! That’s really smart to do. My grocery store actually still carries Silk’s soy nog this year, and I just purchased a carton last weekend. Hopefully your grocery store begins stocking the old version again soon too! 🙂
I just came across these on Pinterest and they sound perfect for Christmas, eggnog and snickerdoodles…two of my favourite things.
Thanks Sarah! I’d love to hear what you think of the cookies if you try them! 🙂
can these cookies be frozen, or can the dough be frozen and baked at a later time??
I really appreciate your interest in my recipe Kristyna! I don’t recommend freezing the cookies because of their cinnamon sugar coating. (It doesn’t hold up very well while thawing!) The cookie dough is also a little too sticky to shape into balls and freeze those to bake later. However, you can let the cookie dough chill in the fridge for at least 5 days, if not longer, if stored in an airtight container. I know how crazy holiday baking can be, so hopefully that last option works for you! 🙂 I’d love to hear what you think if you try the snickerdoodles!
love these cookies but had forgotten about them, this recipe is a wonderful reminder and it’s than time of year for me for cookies, thank you for sharing this!
My pleasure Sabrina! I’d love to hear what you think of the cookies if you try them! 🙂