Pumpkin Snickerdoodles (Chewy + Fluffy!)
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Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are a soft, chewy and fluffy cookie packed full of pumpkin and cinnamon flavor. These buttery pumpkin cookies will fly off the cookie plate, and taste like fall!
Table of Contents
Why We Love Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Soft and chewy, these cookies are packed full of pumpkin flavor. They are similar to classic snickerdoodles but with real pumpkin added.
- Warm cinnamon sugar on the outside gives a sweet and slightly crispy outside to finish off this classic cookie.
- Perfect for fall! The flavors in this cookie warm you up on chilly fall and winter days.
- Great for sharing! These are the perfect cookies for a bake sale, a party platter, or just for sharing. This recipe also feels extra special for a holiday like Thanksgiving.
What is a Snickerdoodle?
A snickerdoodle cookie is a cookie that uses a combination cookie dough with of baking soda and cream of tartar for leavening and flavor. Than cookie dough is then rolled in cinnamon sugar outside, then baked until soft and chewy.
These pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies take snickerdoodles to the next level by adding pureed pumpkin into the dough, combining a snickerdoodle with pumpkin bread yum!
Ingredients For Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Find the full printable recipe with specific measurements and directions below in the recipe card.
Ingredients For The Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough
- butter unsalted
- white granulated sugar
- pumpkin purée – use real pumpkin purée not pumpkin pie filling. Plain pumpkin puree is sometimes labeled as pure pumpkin puree on the can.
- egg
- vanilla extract (not pictured in the ingredient photo but has since been added and adds a lot of great flavor to these cookies. Don’t skip it!)
- all purpose flour
- baking soda
- cream of tartar
- salt
Ingredients For Snickerdoodle Topping
- white granulated sugar
- cinnamon
If using salted butter, leave out the salt in the recipe. Using unsalted butter gives you more control over how much salt is in the final recipe and with flavor. Salt amounts can vary greatly from one brand of butter to the next.
How To Make Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl cream together 3/4 cup sugar and softened butter until fluffy and well mixed with an electric mixer like a stand mixer or a hand mixer.
- Blot the pumpkin with a paper towel to remove any extra moisture. (I usually bloat twice with two separate paper towels.) Add pumpkin puree, egg and vanilla extract, then keep mixing until combined.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl mix together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Stir well the dry ingredients are completely mixed into the wet ingredients and a dough forms. The dough may still be a little sticky.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and cinnamon to create the snickerdoodle topping.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to create dough balls, about a tablespoon and a half per cookie.
- Roll the dough ball a little with your hands, then place each dough ball into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Coat all sides of the dough ball with the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place the dough about 2 inches apart from other cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet to bake.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes or until cooked around the edges but still a little gooey in the center. Your baking time may vary a little depending on your oven.
- Allow the baked cookies to rest on the hot pan for a few minutes as they will continue to cook on the pan. Once they start to set up in the center of the cookie move cookies to a wire rack or clean kitchen towel to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Can I Add Pumpkin Pie Spice To These Pumpkin Cookies?
Add a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the flour before mixing your cookie dough to give the cookies even more of a pumpkin pie flavor.
Adding a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg can also make the cookie itself taste more like pumpkin pie. Some people like more nutmeg in their cookies. Don’t hesitate to increase the nutmeg to 1/2 teaspoon if you like more nutmeg.
Can I Skip Cream of Tartar in Snickerdoodles?
To create a snickerdoodle that is chewy you need an acid to offset the baking soda in the recipe and create that chewiness. Most recipes use cream of tartar to achieve that chewiness by activating the baking soda.
What Can I Substitute For Cream of Tartar?
Lemon juice can also be used in snickerdoodle recipes in place of cream of tartar. You can substitute two teaspoons of lemon juice for the one teaspoon of cream of tartar in this recipe.
Why Did My Pumpkin Cookies Turn Out Cakey Or Too Wet?
Pumpkin has a lot of moisture in it and can vary from squash to squash. This can throw off the liquid ratio in your cookie dough which makes it too wet and can make the cookie texture cakey instead of having a chewy texture.
To keep this pumpkin snickerdoodles recipe and other baked goods from being too liquidy, blot the pumpkin puree well with a paper towel. The paper towels will remove extra moisture which then balances the cookie dough better.
I had this exact misstep happen with a batch of pumpkin cookies. The cookies came out of the oven tasting delicious but when I stored the cookies on the counter the moisture in the dough caused the cookies to become wet. This happened simply because I had forgotten to blot the pumpkin puree with paper towels before adding it to the cookie dough.
How Long Do These Cookies Last?
Store leftover cookies in an airtight container on the counter. Expect these cookies will taste their best if eaten within 3-4 days.
More Recipes You’ll Love
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies
Ingredients
Snickerdoodle Cookie Dough
- 8 tablespoons butter unsalted
- 3/4 cup white sugar granulated
- 2/3 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Snickerdoodle Topping
- 1/3 cup white sugar granulated
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl cream together 3/4 cup sugar and softened butter until fluffy and well mixed with an electric mixer like a stand mixer or a hand mixer.
- Measure the pumpkin and blot well with two paper towels to remove any extra moisture. (I blot the pumpkin twice with two separate paper towels) Add pumpkin puree, egg, and vanilla extract to the butter mixture, then keep mixing until combined.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl mix together flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt.
- Add the flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture. Stir well the dry ingredients are completly mixed into the wet ingredients and a dough forms. The dough may still be a little sticky.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- In a medium bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon to create the snickerdoodle topping.
- Use a medium cookie scoop to create dough balls, about a tablespoon and a half per cookie.
- Roll the dough ball a little with your hands, then place each dough ball into the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Coat all sides of the dough ball. Place the dough about 2 inches apart from other cookie dough balls on the prepared baking sheet to bake.
- Bake cookies for 11-13 minutes or until cooked around the edges. The may be slightly gooey in the center but you don't want them to be raw or wet.
- Allow cookies to rest on the hot pan for a few minutes as they will continue to cook on the pan. Once they start to set up in the center of the cookie move cookies to a wire cooling rack or clean kitchen towel to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
- If you love pumpkin pie flavor, add a teaspoon of pumpkin spice to the cookie dough while you are mixing the dry ingredients. You could also add a 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg for a similar flavor to the dry ingredients of the dough.
- This cookie dough can be a little sticky to work with. After rolling them with cinnamon sugar, rolling the cookie dough balls a second time in the cinnamon sugar can give them more flavor. Popping them in the fridge for 2-3 minutes in between rolling can also help if the dough is on the softer side.
- 2 teaspoons of lemon juice can be substituted for the one teaspoon of cream of tartar in this recipe. See the notes in this article about cream of tartar for more information.
- A teaspoon of vanilla is also delicious in this recipe, but I don’t always add it.
Nutrition
Did You Make This?
I would love to see it! Share your thoughts with me in the comments below!
Could you sub brown sugar for white sugar, or maybe use half and half?
Hi Theresa, You should be able to substitute half and half brown sugar and white sugar in this recipe, though I haven’t tried it for this specific recipe. Brown sugar adds more moisture to a cookie (it’s essentially white sugar with molasses), you could certainly test using only brown sugar but you may need to reduce moisture elsewhere in the recipe if using only brown sugar for the cookies to have the right consistency. -Kristy
How can you make these vegan
Hi Wanda, I would use a vegan-specific recipe to make these cookies. The tricky part is getting the flour to liquid ratio in the recipe correct so they are chewy and not cakey which can sometimes take a few tries to get it right if you are converting a standard baking recipe. I’d try this recipe for a vegan version: https://www.godairyfree.org/recipes/vegan-pumpkin-spice-snickerdoodles
Hope that helps, Kristy