These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are a fun fall spin on classic snickerdoodles! My recipe has the perfect soft and chewy (not cakey!) texture with a buttery pumpkin flavor. Recipe includes a how-to video!
A Seasonal Snickerdoodle Cookie Recipe
If you love snickerdoodles, wait until you try these pumpkin snickerdoodles! These fall-flavored cookies are incredibly soft, chewy, and buttery. They have a distinct snickerdoodle flavor accented by pumpkin, cinnamon sugar, and other fall spices, and they’re truly the perfect fall cookie!
This recipe has been a favorite on the blog for years, and for good reason. Not only is it easy, but there’s no mixer required (yay!). You will need a bit of patience (there’s some chilling involved), but this is one cookie recipe that is absolutely worth the wait!
So often pumpkin cookies end up being cakey, but I designed my pumpkin snickerdoodles to have the perfect soft and chewy texture. You’ll find yourself eating one… and then another… and then another… so I typically recommend making a double batch just to be safe 😊
What You Need
Most of these ingredients will be expected, but there’s a few you should pay close attention to, including:
- Melted butter. Rather than creaming together our butter and sugar, which creates air bubbles and leads to thicker, fluffier cookies, we’re going to melt our butter. This is a long-time favorite trick of mine for soft, chewy cookies that have the best flavor (like my chocolate chip cookies!). It’s especially important in today’s recipe, where the extra moisture from the pumpkin could make our cookies cakey. Using melted butter is key in helping combat this!
- Pumpkin. Use pure pumpkin and NOT pumpkin pie filling. Pumpkin pie filling has additives that we don’t need in our pumpkin snickerdoodles.
- Egg yolk. Pumpkin has a lot of water in it, and the water can lead to cakey cookies. Because we’re adding all of this moisture from the pumpkin, we will omit the egg white to reduce excess moisture. We leave the egg yolk which is mostly fat and will help make our pumpkin snickerdoodles tender, but toss that egg white (or use it to make candied pecans!).
- Cream of tartar. You simply can’t make snickerdoodles without cream of tartar! This is an essential ingredient and I don’t have a good substitute, so make sure you have it before you start.
- Pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have the pre-made version, make my homemade pumpkin spice!
SAM’S TIP: Make sure your butter has cooled enough that it’s not warm to the touch before adding your sugar! Adding the sugar while the butter is too hot can cause your sugar to melt and leave you with a greasy, unusable cookie dough.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Combine the (cooled) butter and sugars, then stir in the pumpkin until combined.
- Stir in the egg and vanilla.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, then gradually add them to the wet ingredients.
- Cover the dough and let it chill for at least 45 minutes.
- Scoop and roll dough through cinnamon sugar before baking for 10-12 minutes.
SAM’S TIP: Never put cold cookie dough on a hot (or even warm) cookie sheet! This will cook/melt the cookies prematurely and can cause them to spread too much, leading to flat cookies.
Frequently Asked Questions
Chilling your cookie dough longer than the recommended 45 minutes is fine. I’ve made pumpkin snickerdoodle dough as far as 3 days in advance. Just keep it tightly covered in the refrigerator. If you chill for longer than 45 minutes and the dough is too difficult to scoop, let it sit at room temperature for several minutes until it can easily be scooped.
Definitely! You can freeze the balls (before rolling in cinnamon sugar) on a cookie sheet before placing in an airtight bag or container for pumpkin snickerdoodles on demand.
Unfortunately I do not recommend it. Cream of tartar is what gives all snickerdoodles (and my snickerdoodle blondies) their classic flavor and tang. Don’t skip it!
Love these pumpkin snickerdoodles? I have so many more snickerdoodle recipes, from snickerdoodle scones to snickerdoodle cupcakes!
Enjoy!
Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter melted and cooled for at least 10 minutes
- ½ cup (100 g) sugar
- ⅓ cup (70 g) light brown sugar tightly packed
- ¼ cup (73 g) pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg yolk
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups (190) all purpose (plain) flour
- 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
Topping
- ¼ cup (50 g) sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Instructions
- Combine butter, sugar, and brown sugar and stir until well-combined. Add pumpkin and stir well.½ cup (113 g) unsalted butter, ½ cup (100 g) sugar, ⅓ cup (70 g) light brown sugar, ¼ cup (73 g) pumpkin puree
- Stir in egg yolk and vanilla extract.1 large egg yolk, ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt until well-combined.1 ½ cups (190) all purpose (plain) flour, 1 ½ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon salt
- Gradually add dry ingredients to wet until ingredients are well-combined.
- Cover cookie dough with clear wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill for at least 45 minutes.
- One dough is nearly finished chilling, preheat oven to 350F (175C) and prepare a cookie sheet by lining with parchment paper. Prepare your cinnamon sugar mixture by whisking together ¼ cup sugar and 2 tsp ground cinnamon in a small bowl.¼ cup (50 g) sugar, 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- Remove dough from refrigerator and scoop into 1 ½ Tablespoon-sized balls. Roll briefly between your palms until smooth and then roll through cinnamon sugar and transfer to prepared cookie sheet, spacing at least 2" apart.
- Bake cookies in a 350F oven for 10-12 minutes. Keep your remaining dough refrigerated while cookies are baking and do not place cookie dough on a hot baking sheet.
- Allow baked cookies to cool completely on cookie sheet before enjoying.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
Cre
What a fantastic spin on an old favorite of my family! I tried rolling them in vanilla sugar with cinnamon, oh wow! My mother’s trick for cooling cookie sheets when baking cookies in batches was to run cool water on the BACK of the cookie sheet. This way, it doesn’t get the cooking surface wet or disturb the greased side, if using. Obviously if you’re using insulated/double layer cookie sheets or cookie sheets with a rolled edge this won’t work, but it does enable you to put another batch in the oven as quick as can be!
Mark
Could I stuff a (maybe pumpkin spice flavored) chocolate ganache inside of this dough like you do with your cinnamon churro cookies?
Sam
Hi Mark! I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure how it would work. Let me know how it goes if you do try it. 🙂
Mark R.
I did and they were delicious! I added a bit of flour (1 tbsp) to sturdy up the dough and let it chill for a full hour, and in hindsight I should’ve let them bake an extra 90 seconds or so, but the dough worked well and the cookies came out tender and buttery! Thanks!
Sam
That’s great to hear! Thank you for the feedback. 🙂
Rhonda G Phillis
Oh My Goodness!!
Followed this recipe to the T..and they are unbelievable!
My new fall favorite 💕😊🎃
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Thanks for giving them a try, Rhonda! 🩷 Enjoy!
Maria Johnson
These were fantastic! They were soft and literally perfect!
Maria Jihnson
These are fantastic! They were soft and literally perfect!
Chris M
Flavor is good but Mike came out puffy balls and not flat like the picture
Sam
Hi Chris! I’m so sorry to hear this happened! Did you weigh your flour? If you have too much flour it can prevent them from spreading. 🙁
Feranaz Alli
I made these and I am in love, Thank you for the recipe.
I am starting a cooking/ baking class with my students next, this recipe definitely on my to do list with them
Sam
I’m so glad it was such a hit! I hope all of the students love it just as much! 🙂
Melissa
Snickerdoodles have been my favorite cookie since childhood. These have just surpassed by previous favorite eggnog version. They are soft and chewy with just rhe right amount of warm spice. This one is a keeper. Thank you so much!!
Sam
Amazing cookies!! Perfect flavor and texture, easy recipe to follow. These are a fall staple!
I didn’t have pumpkin spice so Instead I mixed nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground cloves (no specific measurements), and they still turned out perfectly.
Amy
How would you add sourdough discard to this recipe?
Your sourdough chocolate chip cookie recipe is my favorite!
Sam
Hi Amy! Unfortunately I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure exactly how it would need to be done.
Kristin
These are my favorite cookies! Easy to make and delicious. Instead of rolling the cookies in the cinnamon sugar mixture, I use sugar and pumpkin pie spice for an extra kick. Love them!
Mckayla Dodds
these are amazing! I did double the recipe and added approximately 1 tablespoon extra of flour.
For freezing do you thaw them before baking? or add to the baking time?
Emily @ Sugar Spun Run
Hi Mckayla! We recommend following the instructions for sugar coated cookies in our how to freeze cookie dough post 😊
Dr. J
These are fantastic and so easy to make! Very soft like a snickerdoodle, but with the hint of pumpkin and spice that makes the cookies perfect for this time of year. We used margarine for the butter and Bob’s Red Mill egg substitute for the yolks to keep them vegan and they still came out perfect. This is a keeper everyone is going to be asking the recipe for!
Becks
Hi I just finished baking some, made the dough last night, I scooped them, placed them on a plate with parchment paper and put them in freezer while oven preheated, they still came out flatter thinner and not thick like yours 🤔
Sam
I’m so sorry to hear that happened! Was your butter still a bit warm when adding the sugars? Is it possible you may have needed a little bit more flour in the dough?
Sue
This is now my daughter and grandson’s favorite cookie! Thank you so much for sharing.
Cookie lover
some of the best I’ve ever made