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Soft and gooey, Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodle Blondies. Made with nutty browned butter, salted apple butter, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Then mixed with chunks of cinnamon that melt into wonderful swirls. Just before baking, sprinkle the blondies with a little cinnamon sugar for that classic Snickerdoodle finish. And the true secret here? Sweet apple butter. It’s what keeps these blondies incredibly flavorful, soft, gooey, salty, and so delicious. Great to bake throughout the holiday season!
I’m probably about to annoy many of you, but I’ve entered into my happy, excited holiday cooking and baking zone. These are the recipes I LOVE the most all year long. I work so hard to share only the most special ones each and every season. So I’m jumping up and down with excitement to share these!
And these cookies! Or blondies!! I love them. A mix between a chewy, sweet Snickerdoodle and a thick blondie bar.
Perfect for Thanksgiving, or for packing up to fill this year’s holiday cookie boxes!
Ingredients
- Salted butter
- Apple butter or maple syrup
- Brown sugar
- Large egg
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Kosher salt
- Semi-sweet chocolate chips
- Cinnamon sugar
The details
Step 1: make the cinnamon swirl
This swirl is what makes these blondies so special. 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, but adds a sweetness that’s unique and special to this cookie.
Step 2: make the cookie dough
While the chunks freeze, make the cookies.
Start by browning the butter. This gives you the flavor of browned butter and leaves you with a cookie that has great texture too. Shocker, I know, I added browned butter, but it makes the cookies just that much better.
It’s worth the extra step.
Then add brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla. Mix together, and add the dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, and salt.
Step 3: swirl and bake.
At this point, the cinnamon chunks should be frozen and ready to use. Mix them into the cookie dough and spread the dough out into a baking dish. In classic Snickerdoodle form, sprinkle the top of the dough with cinnamon sugar.
I do a light sprinkle. I didn’t want the bars to be overly sweet. Bake them up until they are barely set on the edges and gooey in the center. A little underdone is best!
Step 4: slice, eat, and enjoy!
Not a traditional blondie bar, but so much better! The result is a perfectly chewy, gingery, blondie with rich notes of cinnamon and vanilla.
We couldn’t love these easy snickerdoodles more. The cinnamon swirl really makes them special. Hope you guys love these just as much as I do!
Looking for Christmas cookie recipes? Here are a few ideas:
Chewy Frosted Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodles
Easy Slice ‘n’ Bake Vanilla Bean Sugar Cookies
Chewy Brown Butter Pretzel Pecan Cookies
Soft Gingerbread Latte Cookies with Brown Butter Icing
Lastly, if you make these Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodle Blondies 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!
Brown Butter Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodle Blondies
Servings: 24 bars
Calories Per Serving: 217 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Watch the How-To Reel
Ingredients
Cinnamon Swirl
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 4 tablespoons salted butter, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
blondies
- 1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup ) salted butter
- 1/4 cup apple butter or maple
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup cinnamon sugar
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a 9×13 inch baking dish with parchment paper.2. 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. Freeze for 10 minutes, until firm.3. To make the snickerdoodles. Add the butter to a skillet set over medium heat. Allow the butter to brown until it smells toasted, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat. Pour the brown butter into a mixing bowl. 4. To the butter, add the brown sugar, apple butter, egg, and vanilla, Beat until combined. Add the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Fold in the chocolate chips and 2/3 rds of the cinnamon chunks. 5. Spread the dough into the prepared dish. Press the remaining cinnamon chunks into the dough. Sprinkle the cinnamon sugar over. Bake for 20-22 minutes, until the edges are just setting and the center is still doughy. Let cool6. Cut into bars, snack, and enjoy!
This post was originally published on October 27, 2023
Yum! So wonderful – an absolute party in my mouth!!
Thanks so much for trying out the recipe! 🙂 xT
I made these today after reading all these comments about it being raw?! I cooked the 22 minutes, cut while it was hot (still looked under cooked) left it for an hour and came back from tobagganing and BAM perfection! These are worth the hype! Make the bars!!!
Thank you so much Amanda! So glad you enjoyed these! xT
You had to bake them for literally an hour beyond what the recipe tells you to?
Delicious. They are “soft in the middle” but definitely not raw (I baked 24 min). Next time I am using butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips, and adding some chopped walnuts. The apple butter and browned butter and snickerdoodle clumps all make them extra tasty. YUM.
Thanks so much for trying out the recipe! 🙂 xT
Loved them. I made one small change. I used 1/2 cup mini semi sweet chocolate chips.
They are exactly as you described. I’ll make them again for sure.
Thanks so much for trying out the recipe! 🙂 xT
I followed the recipe (using maple syrup instead of apple butter) pretty closely. These are delicious! I baked for 21min and it was plenty, mine weren’t raw or gooey. The cinnamon butter chunks made it unique and so good so I wouldn’t leave them out. I did have to brown my butter for more than 2-3min to get it nice and brown, and I wouldn’t skip that part either. The brown butter adds to the flavor profile here in my opinion. I will be making these again, yum!
Thank you sooo much Crystal! xT
I’m not sure what everyone is all worked up about these are fiya !!! Easy to make, my 4 month old daughter made them and she can’t even walk. Super yummy 6 stars! 🙂
Was anyone else’s still RAW even after baking for more than 30 minutes? With all the cinnamon butter and chocolate chips (in a “snickerdoodle”? but that’s another topic…) these would be plenty gooey no matter what, but I had to bake these for about 45 minutes before they even began to be cooked inside. Flavor-wise they were fine but the effort to payoff ratio is not there.
Oh no I’m so sorry about that! Thank you for letting me know! xT
Usually love all of your baked goods but these were unfortunately a miss. Pretty boring tasting
Hey Erin! Thanks for the feedback! Is there anything I can do to help? xT
I’m pretty surprised by all of the negativity in the comments. Today is a snow day for us and I wanted to bake! I had all of the ingredients on hand except the apple butter, but I was already planning to go to the store to pick up some other supplies ahead of the storm, so it wasn’t a big deal to get this too.
This recipe came together fairly easily and turned out delicious. Making the cinnamon chunks took a little extra time but it wasn’t difficult and it’s worth it when you bite into a chunk! The apple butter keeps everything extremely gooey (not underbaked!), which I love! I am crazy about cinnamon and snickerdoodles, and this was a home run in my book!
Hi Nikki! Thank you so so much for your sweet comment! I so appreciate it! xT
Easy and quick to make. Froze my cinnamon swirl until ready to be added. I accidentally forgot to add the cinnamon swirl to the dough and added it all to the top and pressed it into the dough. Blondies cooked perfectly in 22 minutes. 10/10. Delicious blondies (also known as cookie bars.)
Thanks so much for trying out the recipe! 🙂 xT
These turned out great, and my husband said they’re dangerously addictive! I omitted the cinnamon and nutmeg from the batter because we didn’t want a strong spice flavor, and I used white chocolate chips because I already had them. I’ll definitely be making these again!
Thanks sooo much Alisha! xT
Decided to try these because I already had apple butter. Meh, after reading reviews, the only thing I didn’t do was add the frozen crumbled butter sugar cinnamon bits. They turned out like bar cookies.
Skip this recipe and make regular blondies & add cinnamon or spices you like.
Way too much work for” meh”
The cinnamon brown sugar butter bits really make this recipe unique. Omitting them would change the recipe into something other than what was intended.
If you’re the same Alisha from above, them you changed the recipe too. 5 stars with changes. That’s helpful.
My family just devoured these. I needed to bake them for 40 mins instead of 20, but they came out DELISH! Surprised by the poor reviews on here. Just bake them longer and they’re perfect.
Hey Vicki! I’m so sorry you didn’t enjoy this recipe! Thank you for the feedback! xT
These sound so yummy and delicious. I think I’ll try them without the chocolate chips since both blondies and snickerdoodles don’t have chocolate.
Hi there! Hope you enjoy the recipe! xT
Why is there apple butter in them? There’s never apple butter in snickerdoodles- or chocolate chips either. Shouldn’t this be called Apple Butter Ginger Chocolate Chip Cinnamon Swirl Snickerdoodle Brownie Bars?
Did these turn out kind of bad for anyone else? I was SO excited that I had all the ingredients for this but honestly I think this is a waste of apple butter. Flavor-wise it may as well not be in there, and it’s expensive! The blondies themselves would NOT bake no matter how long they stayed in the oven. Turned the temp down and kept going but I had to pull them out while they were still kind of gooey before they burned on the outside.
The measurements of ingredients for the topping vs. blondie are EXTREMELY vague though, so maybe that’s where some issues came from.
I’ve noticed that nearly all her recipes are expensive to make. But, I guess that must be her audience…she’s not really a “budget-minded” cook. Also, have you ever noticed that she loves orange-colored food. So many of her recipes are an orange color.
Carla, mine turned out great, but I did need to bake them for an additional four minutes. I didn’t have to tent them or anything—they just weren’t baked enough overall. I used a glass baking dish so that could have changed the baking time for me (or my oven just runs cool).
The description speaks of them being gingery but there is no ginger in the recipe.
I also wasn’t clear as to the substitute of maple for apple butter. Is it maple syrup or are you speaking of maple butter which is extremely hard to find and very expensive.
Is maple butter similar to apple butter? How much ginger do we need to make these, and when do we add it?