Standing in my kitchen at 9 AM on a Tuesday, aggressively squeezing a pile of orange mush in a paper towel and wondering how my life had come to this is exactly what led to these pumpkin snickerdoodles. The answer? I wanted them yesterday.
I usually avoid baking with pumpkin because it turns everything into a soggy, cakey disappointment. But blotting the moisture out of it actually works, saving me from yet another batch of sad, flat discs. If you are looking for an easy pumpkin snickerdoodles for fall situation that will not end in tears, this is it. Here is exactly how I do it.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- It is egg-free. If you forgot to buy eggs, it literally does not matter because the pumpkin does all the binding work.
- Barely any chill time. You only have to wait 30 minutes, which is exactly how long it takes me to clean up the flour I just spilled everywhere.
- Actual cookie texture. This soft pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie recipe yields a dense, chewy cookie, not a weird muffin top.
- No mixer required. You just need a whisk, a spatula, and a little bit of forearm strength to bring this together.
Tools You’ll Need
Nothing fancy, I promise.
- Glass mixing bowls. These let you pretend you are hosting a cooking show in your own kitchen.
- medium cookie scoop Without this, your cookies will be wildly different sizes and bake unevenly, which is a tragedy.
- Paper towels. These handle the highly glamorous step of wringing the moisture out of the pumpkin puree.
- Baking sheets. Heavy-duty ones help prevent the bottoms of the cookies from burning.
Ingredients
For the Dough
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter – Melted and slightly cooled. If you use hot butter, you will melt the sugar and end up with a greasy mess.
- 1/4 cup packed light or dark brown sugar – Whatever is currently hardening in your pantry will work fine.
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar – Adds the classic sweetness and crisp edges we need.
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract – Measure with your heart, but maybe stick to a teaspoon if you are nervous.
- 6 Tablespoons pumpkin puree – NOT pumpkin pie filling. Read the can, or you will be very sad.
- 1 and 1/2 cups all-purpose flour – Spoon and level it. Don’t pack it in like brown sugar.
- 1/4 teaspoon salt – Balances out the fact that we are basically eating cinnamon sugar air.
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder – Check the expiration date. Mine expired in 2019 once and it was a disaster.
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda – Works with the baking powder to give these some lift.
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon – The heavy lifter for that fall snickerdoodle recipe vibe.
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice – Adds that specific autumn warmth.
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips – Technically optional, but these white chocolate pumpkin cookies are infinitely better with them.
For the Coating
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar – Because rolling them in plain cinnamon would be aggressive.
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon – More cinnamon, because we commit to the bit.
How To Make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Do not let the paper towel step scare you off; it feels weird but it is absolutely necessary.
- Mix the wet ingredients: Whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl until no brown sugar lumps remain, then whisk in the vanilla and blotted pumpkin until smooth. If you forgot to cool your butter and have hot sugar soup, just let it sit for a minute before proceeding.
- Combine dry and wet: Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl, pour the wet ingredients in, and mix with a spatula before folding in the white chocolate chips. The chips might fall out of the greasy dough, just aggressively shove them back in, it is fine.
- Chill the dough: Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Do not skip this unless you want one giant, flat baking sheet cookie that takes over your oven.
- Prep the oven: Remove dough from the refrigerator, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C), and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Parchment paper is your best friend here, unless you enjoy scrubbing baked-on sugar off your pans.
- Shape and flatten: Scoop about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into balls, toss generously in the cinnamon-sugar coating, arrange 3 inches apart, and slightly flatten the tops with the bottom of a cup. You MUST flatten them slightly, or they will not spread and you will end up baking weird orange golf balls.
- Bake: Bake for 11–12 minutes or until the edges appear set. They will look underdone in the center, but trust the process and pull them out anyway.
- Cool completely: Cool cookies on the baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. Letting them cool is the hardest part, but if you eat them hot, they just taste like molten lava and regret.
- Store: Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. Hide them in the back of the pantry if you want any left for tomorrow.
♥ The Misfit Tips!
- Blotting the pumpkin. Skipping this step once turned the cookies into weird, spongy little cakes that stuck to the pan.
- Flattening the dough. Assuming the oven heat would melt the dough balls into flat cookies once produced completely round orange golf balls instead.
- The chill time. Thirty minutes stays non-negotiable, since rushing it once caused the butter to leak out everywhere on the pan.
Make it yours
- Dark chocolate version. You swap white chocolate chips for dark chocolate chips for a richer twist on this soft pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie recipe.
- Pecan crunch version. You fold chopped toasted pecans into the dough for extra texture in this easy pumpkin snickerdoodles for fall batch.
Perfect Pairings
These go perfectly with your third rewatch of Gilmore Girls on a rainy weeknight.
- A giant mug of black coffee balances out the intense cinnamon sugar situation.
- A neighborhood fall potluck satisfies the urge to make people think you have your life completely together.
How to Store Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
❤
- Fridge. Up to a week in an airtight container, though the fridge dries them out a bit and letting them come to room temp before eating helps.
- Freezer. Up to 3 months for baked cookies, or unbaked dough balls rolled in cinnamon sugar right before baking.
- Reheat. Ten seconds in the microwave brings back that fresh-out-of-the-oven vibe.
- Storage note. The cinnamon sugar coating can get a little sticky on day two if you live in a humid climate.
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These pumpkin snickerdoodles prove that a genuinely impressive fall cookie can come together with nothing more than a whisk, a spatula, and a few pantry staples. This soft pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie recipe relies on blotted pumpkin and melted butter to avoid the soggy, cakey texture that ruins so many other pumpkin cookie attempts. Whether served at a potluck or hidden in the back of the pantry, this fall snickerdoodle recipe earns a permanent spot in the regular rotation.
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla and blotted pumpkin until smooth. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft. Fold in 1/2 cup white chocolate chips, if using. The chips may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine.
- Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Chilling the dough is a must for this recipe.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Scoop the dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and roll each into balls. Mix the coating ingredients together, and then roll each cookie dough ball generously in the cinnamon-sugar coating. Arrange cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Using the back of a spoon or the bottom of a cup/measuring cup, slightly flatten the tops of the dough balls. (Without doing so, the cookies may not spread.)
- Bake for 11–12 minutes or until the edges appear set. The cookies will look very soft in the center. Remove from the oven. If you find that your cookies didn’t spread much at all, flatten them out gently with the back of a spoon when you take them out of the oven. If desired, press a few white chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. This is only for looks.
- Cool cookies on the baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The longer the cookies cool, the better they taste! The flavor gets stronger and the texture becomes chewier. I usually let them sit, uncovered, for several hours before serving. Chewiness and pumpkin flavor are even stronger on day 2.
- Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.