Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
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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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Like this? Leave a comment below!
I tried a gluten, dairy, and egg free variation of this recipe and it turned out amazing!! I made a double batch and it was gone in three days from just me, my husband, and one DND session.
I substituted the flour for King Arthur’s 1-1 GF flour blend, a dairy free butter (I think country crock?), and I used 1.5 tbsp of olive oil for each egg yolk. (I also used much more spice than indicated in the recipe! I am a pumpkin spice girlie and proud of it.) They needed a bit longer bake time than the recipe says but that may be because I am at a high elevation. They took about 15 minutes for me. They also took some time to set completely, I found they were more snickerdoodle-textured the next day, so if you have plans for this cookie I would recommend to bake a day ahead, or at least a few hours ahead of if possible.
Delicious pumpkin flavor that’s not over powerful. A crowd favorite and our go to fall cookie.
Has anyone tried freezing the dough balls and then either went freezer to oven or thawed then baked?
Hi Michelle! You can certainly do this. We provide instructions in our post on how to freeze cookie dough (use instructions for sugar-coated cookies). Enjoy!
So yummy!
These are good, but 3/4 tsp of vanilla… really? Why not the full tsp? I definitely did not measure “3/4 tsp”. I refuse to believe that 1/4 tsp more makes any difference. They turned out great with a whole entire teaspoon of vanilla.
Glad you enjoyed them, Em 🙂
Do you have to use parchment paper, or does the dough have enough butter in it so they don’t stick on the cookie sheet?
Hi Pamela! An un-greased baking sheet will work fine here. It’s just easier to clean up parchment paper. 🙂
Very good cookie, love the texture, but they’re not very pumpkiny. Also, this recipe should be doubled at the very least. 16 cookies does not a batch make! Especially for a family of 4.
Instant favorite!
yummmm
Delicious! Only complaint is that they’re too yummy, my husband is eating all of them!
🤣 Enjoy, Sierra!
Loved these cookies, they were so yummy and smelled amazing! I added an extra bit of cinnamon to the dough and then added extra cinnamon and some pumpkin spice to the sugar mix (mostly because I just love cinnamon-y snickerdoodles) delicious!!
Yum! So glad you enjoyed them, Jenna 🥰
Such a lovely fall cookie! The base recipe is awesome, but I made a few adjustments that I think really elevated this cookie me:
– Increased the spices in the dough. I added 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon + 1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
– Added 1/2 cup white chocolate chips to the dough and a few extra on the top of each cookie
– Chilled the dough overnight and refrigerated the dough balls between batches of baking
– Added 10g extra flour because I live in a high humidity area and my cookies tend to spread.
I ended up with 27 beautiful, soft snickerdoodles!
So glad you enjoyed them, Erin! 🧡
I brought these to a bible study tonight and everyone raved about them!
Fantastic cookies! Perfect for the early fall
Im very interested in using these for a cookie sandwich using ermine frosting. Does this cookie have a soft enough bite for a cookie sandwich?
Hi Jodie! Personally, I think it does. 🙂
avid baker. made these and they didn’t rise,they just melted in the oven, which the batter was super runny too. not sure. followed recipe.
I’m so sorry to hear this happened, Herman! Did you let the butter cool before adding the sugars? Did you weigh your flour?
I don’t have any unsalted butter. could I use imperial stick butter instead? I don’t live close to a store and need to make these today or tomorrow. maybe use stick butter and less sugar?
Hi Candy! I think it may work without reducing the sugar. I haven’t tried it myself though. Let me know how they turn out. 🙂
Can I use Vegan butter. Lactose issue BUT I want these cookies!
Hi Rita! I haven’t personally tried it, but I think it could potentially work. 🙂
I actually just baked these tonight with vegan butter and they came out great. The dough is a bit soft even after chilling but they didn’t over spread. I used earth balance brand.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Kierra! Thank you for the feedback! 🙂
Oh my gosh. These were some of the best cookies I’ve ever made! I followed the recipe almost exactly – just added some pumpkin pie spice to the sugar/cinnamon mix to roll the cookies in..I also added white chocolate chips and baked for closer to 16 mins until the tops cracked a bit. So good! The key is to let them cool on the pan.completely – around 10 mins before serving. Turned out perfect this way!
I’m so glad to hear they were such a hit, Mariam! 🙂
Hi Sam,
Can I double this recipe as listed. These sound so amazing but I would like to have more!
Sure thing! Enjoy! 🙂