These pillowy soft and deliciously chewy Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are loaded with pumpkin flavor. Made with real pumpkin and warm pumpkin pie spice, this is the best fall cookie recipe just in time for your holiday baking.
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
What better way to kick off pumpkin season than with homemade baked cookies! These mouth-watering Pumpkin Snickerdoodles take traditional snickerdoodles to the next level with the addition of pumpkin purée and warm, inviting pumpkin pie spice.
The dough gets rolled in a sugar and spice mixture that crystalizes when baking to give the exterior of these cookies the slightly hint of crisp that you look for classic snickerdoodles.
All of your friends and family are going to fall in love with these cookies. And because the cookie dough only takes minutes to prepare with simple ingredients, you can have freshly baked cookies in no time. Add them to a cookie tray with these Pumpkin Whoopie Pies and these Candy Corn Cookie Bars and you’ll have the perfect dessert for your next fall-themed gathering or Halloween party.
💗 Why We Love This Recipe
- These melt in your mouth pumpkin cookies are the perfect fall cookie for parties, cookie swaps or just for an afternoon treat.
- This pumpkin cookie recipe uses simple ingredients from the grocery store that you’d typically use in baking.
- Real pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice gives these sweet cookies the perfect taste of pumpkin!
🥄 Recommended Tools:
- Electric Mixer
- Cookie Sheet
- Cookie Scoop
- Large bowl
- Rubber Spatula
- Measuring Cup
- Wire Rack
🛒 What’s Needed for Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles
- Unsalted butter at room temperature
- Brown sugar
- White sugar
- Pumpkin puree
- Vanilla extract
- All-purpose flour
- Pumpkin pie spice
- Cream of tartar
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Sugar and pumpkin pie spice for rolling the cookies
📄 How to Make the Best Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Step One: Cream the Butter and Sugar
- In a large bowl, using a hand mixer or stand mixer cream together butter, ½ cup brown sugar and ¼ cup white sugar until well mixed.
- Add in pumpkin and vanilla, continue mixing until well blended, making sure scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as you go.
Step Two: Combine the Dry Ingredients
- In a separate bowl whisk together flour, 1 ½ teaspoon pumpkin spice, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture gradually, mixing between each addition until all the flour mixture has been incorporated well with the wet ingredients.
Step Three: Chill the Dough
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.
Step Four: Roll the Dough into Balls and Bake
Preheat the oven to 350 and line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Stir together the ¼ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice in a small bowl or shallow dish
- Scoop dough out 1 tablespoon at a time and roll into a ball. Place cookie dough balls in the sugar and pumpkin spice mixture and roll around to cover. Place on your prepared baking sheet.
- Continue rolling the dough into balls and coating with the sugar mixture, placing them about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the top begins to crack.
- Allow to the baked cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then move to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Once the cookies have cooled, store them in an airtight container for up to a week.
Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles Variations and Add-ins
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies: For the chocolate lovers in your life, you can add some milk chocolate or white chocolate chips to the cookie dough.
Frosted Snickerdoodles: Add a sugar glaze or some cream cheese frosting for extra decadent cookies. These soft pumpkin cookies are delicate when still warm, so you want to be sure they are cooled completely before you try adding the frosting.
Maple Snickerdoodles: Pumpkin and maple go hand-in-hand. If you want to add a maple twist to these cookies, use a little bit of real maple extract.
Pumpkin Macadamia Nut: If you want to add a little crunch to these cookies, macadamia nuts are awesome with the cinnamon flavors in these snickerdoodles.
Tips for Making Perfect Snickerdoodle Cookies
- For the perfect fluffy cookie, make sure you chill the dough for at least an hour. This really helps the dough from flattening out while baking, plus it gives the pumpkin spice to time to flavor the cookie dough well.
- To help the cookies bake evenly, you want to make sure the dough balls are uniform in size. I like to use a small cookie scoop to measure them out.
- Set a timer. We have all walked off and forgot something was baking in the oven. These cookies will not be chewy and soft if they are over baked.
- Because you don’t use it often, make sure to check the expiration date on your cream of tartar. That is the key to making a chewy cookie.
- To help keep the cookies moist, store them in an airtight container on the counter for up to 4-5 days.
Can I Use Pumpkin Pie Filling?
Pumpkin puree is actual pumpkin that has been cooked without other ingredients added and canned. Pumpkin Pie filling is not the same and it cannot be used in the same way without adding extra spices and sugar to the cookies.
How Do I Make Homemade Pumpkin Spice?
If you have a cabinet full of spices but not pumpkin pie spice you can easily make your own. Here is the basic ingredients and measurements you’ll need but feel free to adjust them based on your preference.
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- Small pinch of ground cloves
Can I Freeze These Chewy Snickerdoodles?
You sure can and it’s so easy to do. I like to pre-freeze mine so that they don’t break apart when they are in the freezer. Just place the cooled cookies on a sheet pan in the freezer for about an hour. Then transfer them to a zipper bag, squeezing out any excess air, and place back in the freezer for up to three months.
More Fall Recipes
- Halloween Candied Apples
- Layered Candy Corn Fudge
- Pumpkin Pancakes
- Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
- Pumpkin Spice Rice Krispie Treats
- Apple Cider with Caramel
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
For Rolling the Cookies:
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer or stand mixer cream together butter, ½ cup brown sugar and ¼ cup white sugar until well mixed.
- Add in pumpkin and vanilla, continue mixing until well blended.
- In a separate bowl whisk together flour, 1 ½ tsp pumpkin spice, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture gradually, mixing between each addition until all the flour has been incorporated.
- Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350 and line your cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Stir together the ¼ cup sugar and 2 tsp pumpkin spice in a small bowl or shallow dish
- Scoop dough out 1 tbsp at a time and roll into a ball. Place ball in the sugar and pumpkin spice mixture and roll around to cover. Place on your prepared baking sheet.
- Continue rolling the dough into balls and coating with the sugar mixture, placing them about 2 inches apart on your baking sheet.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes or until the top begins to crack.
- Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then move to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Nutrition
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