Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These pumpkin snickerdoodles are super soft and chewy (not cakey!), made with real pumpkin, and coated in cinnamon and sugar. The perfect cookie recipe for fall!
I have to admit, I’ve never really loved pumpkin cookies very much. I love pumpkin and cookies, but the problem with them is that they tend to be cakey and not really taste like cookies. I’d much rather just eat a piece of pumpkin cake.
So I set out to create a pumpkin cookie recipe that was soft, chewy, and loaded with pumpkin flavor. No cakey cookies anywhere in sight!
And let me tell you, this pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe delivers all of that. Not only are they super soft and chewy, but these cookies have actual pumpkin in them too.
What You’ll Need For This Recipe
This recipe starts out with some of your usual snickerdoodle cookie ingredients, but with a few adjustments to give them lots of pumpkin flavor.
The full ingredient list and instructions are towards the bottom of the post, but I wanted to quickly go over a few key ingredients:
- All-purpose flour: This provides the structure for your cookies. One important note – make sure that you measure your flour with the spoon and level method. If you scoop your flour from the container it can become compacted and cause your cookies to turn out cakey.
- Pumpkin pie spice: If you don’t have any on hand, you can use my homemade pumpkin pie spice recipe instead.
- Cream of tartar: The cream of tartar is what gives snickerdoodles a little bit of a tangy taste and also reacts with the baking soda to help the cookies rise. You can technically leave it out since this recipe uses brown sugar which reacts with the baking soda as well.
- Sugar: I used a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar, both to add sweetness and a little moisture to these pumpkin snickerdoodles.
- Egg yolk: This recipe doesn’t call for a whole egg, just the egg yolk. I promise that’s not a mistake! One of the main reasons pumpkin cookies tend to turn out cakey is because pumpkin adds moisture to the batter. In order to avoid this problem, I removed some moisture by just using an egg yolk instead of the whole egg.
- Pumpkin puree: Be careful to buy pure pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling by accident.
How to Make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
To make the cookies, start by whisking together the flour, spices, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Set it aside while you prepare the wet ingredients.
In a separate bowl, cream together the unsalted butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar. Then, mix in the egg yolk, vanilla, and pumpkin puree.
Next, add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix them together until just combined.
Once you make the cookie dough, it’s important to let the dough chill in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. This will give the butter some time to firm back up and prevent the cookies from spreading too much in the oven.
Once the cookie dough is chilled, scoop it out and roll each ball of cookie dough in a cinnamon sugar mixture, then bake them.
The cookies are done once the tops are set. They will be soft when they first come out of the oven, but they will continue to set up as they cool.
Storage Instructions
Cookies may be stored in an airtight container on the counter for up to 1 week.
Cookie dough balls may be frozen for up to 3 months. Roll in the cinnamon sugar coating just before baking and bake from frozen for an additional 1 to 2 minutes. Baked cookies will also freeze well for up to 3 months, thaw to room temperature before serving.
Baking Tips
- Don’t over mix your butter and sugar! You only need to mix them together for 1 to 2 minutes, just until they’re well combined. If you over mix, it could potentially cause the cookies to have a cakier texture.
- You will have quite a bit of pumpkin puree leftover. You could easily double this recipe to make more cookies or use the extra pumpkin in my pumpkin oatmeal cookies, pumpkin scones, or mini pumpkin pies.
- Be sure to chill your cookie dough for at least 30 minutes so your cookies don’t spread too much in the oven.
Recipe Video
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour spooned & leveled (190 grams)
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened (115 grams; 1 stick)
- ½ cup granulated sugar (100 grams)
- ¼ cup packed light brown sugar (50 grams)
- 1 large egg yolk at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup pumpkin puree (60 grams)
For the cinnamon sugar coating:
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar (25 grams)
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- In a medium-sized mixing bowl whisk together the flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt until well combined. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar for 1 to 2 minutes or until well combined. Mix in the egg yolk and vanilla extract, then mix in the pumpkin puree, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. Cover tightly and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats and set aside.
- Remove the cookie dough from the refrigerator. Using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets, making sure to leave a little room between each one.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon for the coating. Roll each ball of cookie dough in the cinnamon sugar coating and place back on the baking sheets.
- Bake for 10 to 13 minutes or until the cookies are set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
Super yummy!!! I started making the recipe and realized I didn’t have pumpkin purée. Opps! So I used a whole egg & they turned out so stinking great!
Yummy!!
I have tried several of your recipes and LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them! They are fantastic. I plan to make these with the pumpkin for the holidays for sure. I’m a pumpkin and cinnamon fiend!! My question is this…my boyfriend loves snickerdoodles, they are his favorite. I want to attempt these without the pumpkin, can you tell me how?
Thanks so much! Keep on sharing the fabulous recipes.
So glad you’re enjoying the recipes, Linda! I actually have a regular snickerdoodle cookie recipe here. Hope that helps!
Could I substitute applesauce for 1/2 the butter
I haven’t tried it, but it would likely be too much moisture and they’ll be cakey.
They didn’t spread out for me, like you show.. they are more dome like, even after I tried flattening the dough balls.. and I’ve made 3 batches ?.
The thing that I did differently was use fresh pumpkin puree, not canned.
Sorry you had trouble with the recipe, Candice. If you’re using fresh pumpkin puree it could be more wet than the canned version. The more moisture that’s in the dough, the less likely the cookies are to spread. You can place the pumpkin puree between some paper towels to press out some moisture or flatten the cookies to the thickness that you want them and then bake them.
I won a cookie contest with this recipe. Thank you!
These were good! The whole family liked them. Pumpkin flavor is subtle but delicious.
It won’t be until 23:40 when the dough has chilled for .5 hour. Any suggestions before I scoop them out tomorrow? I did the spoon and level for my flour.
If the dough is too hard to scoop, you can leave it on the counter for 15-20 minutes. It may also help to slightly flatten each ball of cookie dough to ensure that they spread.
I have made a lot of cookies in my time and these are now one of my (and hubby’s) favorite! Thanks so much! Hubby loves pumpkin cookies, but I don’t like how cakey they always are. These are just amazing!
I’m in love with these cookies! I made them for a potluck and they were quite a hit. At first, I was slightly afraid that it would be too sweet but the the amount of sugar worked out perfectly. I plan on making them again for Thanksgiving with my in laws. Thanks so much for sharing such a delicious recipe!
Love snickerdoodles and pumpkin so I am definitely foing to have to try these.
Just curious – would oat flour work in this recipe rather than all purpose flour? Looking for a gluten free option.
I haven’t tried it, but oat flour tends to absorb more moisture so it may dry out the cookies.
OMG. I love making the typical pumpkin soft cookies each year. I grew up in snickerdoodles. Not sure why this is the first time I have heard of this fantastic combination.
I would rather make cookies than buy them any day. I don’t love many sweets but I can say these are my new favorite cookie! I will be making these any chance I get!
Thank you for your time and effort to come up with this recipe. I truly think you!
So glad you liked the cookies, Samantha!
I have made a lot of cookies in my time and these are now one of my (and hubby’s) favorite! Thanks so much! Hubby loves pumpkin cookies, but I don’t like how cakey they always are. These are just amazing!
Delicious!! Perfect little blast of spice. I used a 1-for-1 gluten free flour (Bob’s Red Mill) for dietary needs & added some white chocolate chips! My new favorite cookie – I’ll be making them for cookie exchange (& for Thanksgiving!)
Thank you! I did the cream cheese balls with powdered sugar & a teaspoon of vanilla. They were absolutely delicious! I also used your pumpkin spice recipe with some sugar to roll the cookie dough in. Best recipe ever!
So glad they turned out great for you!
I really want to make this recipe, but my husband keeps pushing this idea of cream cheese. Other than as an icing, can cream cheese be incorporated into the recipe?
I have a cream cheese frosting recipe on my site, you could use that recipe and make cookie sandwiches with that as the filling. You could also mix together some cream cheese with a little sugar, scoop small balls of it, freeze them until firm, and fill the cookie dough with it!
The Pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe is a wonderful change from all the chocolate candy of the trick or treat season. I didn’t have a cookie scoop but I just made do. I really enjoyed them. I added one each of Hersheys Pumpkin Spice morsels when they were hot and they melted into the cookie. Being a big pumpkin spice fan, I could have gone for just a bit more punpkin and pumpkin spice flavor but I had little time to research since they were gone before a witch could fly by! Thank you so much! Barbara
Hi, my cookies are great! But they came out really puffy, even after letting them cool they haven’t flattened out. Not a big deal because trust me we will still eat them! I was just wondering what I may have done wrong. I left the dough in the fridge overnight and rolled them out and baked the next day. I also didn’t add cream of tartar. TIA!
Hi Carolina! It could be a few things – did you make sure to spoon & level your flour? Too much flour can lead to puffier/cakey cookies. It could also be because the dough was chilled longer, the firmer the butter the less the cookies will spread as they bake. Also, I find that it’s best to scoop them larger too so they spread more (about 2 tablespoons of dough per cookie). If you make them again, you can also try slightly flattening the cookies and that will help them spread more too.
Something I saw on another site is to “bang” the cookies – once the pan is removed from the oven, bang it down on the counter & the cookies will flatten. Worked for me!
Great suggestion, Marta!
The exact same thing happened to me. I re made the batch and followed the recipe exactly, spoon and level the flour and refrigerate 30 min and banged the tray after. It still came out a little puffy but Th is time the dough was very soft and sticky to work with. Still taste good but need to figure out how to make them not as puffy and airy.
Hi, Helen! Next time you make them, you can try slightly flattening them before you bake them and that should help.
I haven’t made these yet but can I just say I love how you write out your instructions! Your commentary is so helpful to people like me? you explain why you do certain things the way you do so it makes sense and people like me won’t go “I’ll just throw the whole egg in” Or “I’m sure it’ll be fine I don’t chill the dough” ? and at the same time your writing doesn’t drag on and on so I actually read it all. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Thank you, Angelena! So glad it’s helpful! Hope you enjoy the cookies too 🙂
I love chewy cookies, especially snickerdoodles, and when I got the idea to make pumpkin cookies was disappointed that all the recipes were for cakelike cookies. I can’t wait to make these!
Hope you enjoy the cookies, Theresa!
I don’t have cream of tarter. Would you recommend a substitution for it? I have a snickerdoodle recipe that I really enjoy…do you know if I could just add the pumpkin purée to it, or do I need to take the eggs out and just add egg whites?
You can actually leave it out, it just adds a little tanginess to the cookies. As for your snickerdoodle recipe, it really just depends on the recipe itself for how you would need to adjust it.
Doubled recipe. Followed exactly except added pumpkin spice to cinnamon sugar for rolling cookies. Delicious!
I made these. A little disappointing that they only made 18 cookies. Will double next time.
This recipe definitely doesn’t make many cookies, that’s why I note in the recipe card how many it makes 🙂 You can certainly double it though!
I’ve made these twice now and they are SO GOOD. My son’s teacher declared them the best cookie she’s ever eaten. They’re such a fun seasonal cookie & are going in my regular winter rotation
So glad you liked the cookies, Julie!
Would these cookies work well cut out into shapes with a cookie cutter or do you think they would spread out too much in the oven and lose shape?
I wouldn’t recommend it with this recipe, the dough would likely be too sticky to work with and not hold its shape.
I’m excited to try this recipe but was curious if you have ever tried substituting the flour with quinoa flour? If I do that should I leave the whole egg in or just do the flour substitution and change nothing else?
Thank you!
I’ve never worked with quinoa flour, so I’m not sure.
These cookies were a hit at my party. My friends raved over how soft and chewy they were and said they were some of the best snickerdoodles they ever had! I’m not a big baker but I followed this recipe exactly and the cookies came out perfectly. Thank you!
So glad to hear that everyone liked the cookies, Lauren!
I just made this with a triple batch of the ingredients and it turned out amazing! Thanks for sharing, perfect for sharing at Christmas with the family tomorrow 🙂
Glad the cookies turned out great for you, Jason!
Can this recipe be doubled, or should I make two separate batches?
I haven’t tried doubling this particular recipe. I would probably make two separate batches just to be safe.
We doubled this and it worked out just fine.
I doubled the recipe. It worked great! Delicious recipe!!
I doubled it and it was good!
I live at 5000 feet above sea level, will I need to add a little more flour to this recipe?
I’m not familiar with high altitude baking, but some readers have found this guide helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html.
Made these cookies and they were wonderful. My family absolutely loved them.
So glad your family loved the cookies, Carolyn!
Has anyone ever tried coating in pumpkin spice sugar instead of cinnamon sugar?
I haven’t, but I think it would be delicious! You can swap out the cinnamon for an equal amount of pumpkin pie spice.
Yes. I just made these. I rolled mine in pumpkin pie spice and they are excellent!
Question- mine came out cakey and not chewy as promised. Would this be because A) I substituted cream of tartar? I didn’t have any and google said I could sub with lemon juice. B) I measured the flour the scoop way you said not to. C) I put the dough in disc shapes onto the pan instead of round ball shapes.
Or….? Did others follow recipe to a T and not get chewy?
If they turned out cakey, it’s more than likely because you scooped the flour. Too much flour will create a cakier cookie. I always recommend using the spoon & level method to ensure that you’re getting an accurate measurement of flour.