This post may contain affiliate links, view our disclosure.
This pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies recipe is crispy outside and chewy inside with warm spices, nutty brown butter, and rich brown sugar. It’s an easy, no-fail cookie recipe that’s perfect for fall, and I give tons of tips and tricks for success!
Classic snickerdoodles have a cinnamon-forward flavor that’s laced with vanilla and a subtle tanginess, thanks to cream of tartar. They’re typically crispy along the outside and chewy inside with crackled tops. Here we turn up the fall factor by adding pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice, making these cookies the perfect easy bake for autumn.
What Makes This Recipe a Winner
- If you like regular snickerdoodles and you’re a fan of pumpkin, you’re going to love these cookies! They marry the warm cinnamon spice flavor of snickerdoodles with the perfect amount of golden pumpkin, and of course they still have the classic subtly tart twang that these cookies are loved for.
- For those of you who are like me and frequently find yourself with a half or quarter can of pumpkin puree stashed in the fridge at any point during September through December, this is a great way to use it. We only need 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree, but you can easily scale this recipe up if you have more pumpkin to use. These are a good cookie to bring to a holiday cookie exchange, or to put on your Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert buffet table!
- Thanks to cream of tartar, which helps these cookies stay deliciously chewy, these keep well for up to 5 days. And you can even make the dough ahead of time and freeze it to bake the cookies later!
Ingredients
Breaking It Down
Ingredients Explained
In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles Ingredients
- Unsalted butter – Butter adds rich flavor and chewy texture to these cookies. We brown the butter, which lends nutty, caramelized flavor notes.
- Light brown sugar – Molasses in brown sugar emphasizes the caramel notes in brown butter, and is a lovely sweetener with pumpkin.
- Pumpkin puree – You can use homemade or store-bought pumpkin puree. Make sure it isn’t too watery here. (Also, if you’re using canned pumpkin, make sure it isn’t pumpkin pie filling, which comes with sweetener and spices added.)
- Vanilla extract – For flavor and aroma.
- Flour – All-purpose flour is the base of our cookie dough.
- Pumpkin spice – Pumpkin pie spice blend is typically a mixture of the following ground spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves.
- Baking soda – Snickerdoodle cookies typically contain both baking soda and cream of tartar as their leavening agents. Cream of tartar’s acidity reacts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide to help the cookies rise.
- Cream of tartar – Cream of tartar serves multiple purposes in this cookie recipe. It reacts with baking soda to help these cookies rise properly. Cream of tartar lends a subtle tangy flavor, which is a hallmark feature of classic snickerdoodles. Additionally, cream of tartar helps prevent sugar crystallization, so it helps these cookies stay deliciously chewy.
- Salt – Salt helps create a balanced flavor profile and ensures these cookies aren’t bland or one-dimensional in flavor.
- Egg yolk – Egg yolk adds richness, but also helps us create a smooth cookie dough and achieve the perfect chewy cookie texture.
Pumpkin Spice Sugar Coating Ingredients
- Granulated white sugar – Traditional snickerdoodles are rolled in a cinnamon sugar mixture, which gives them their cinnamon flavor and helps create their distinctive crackled tops.
- Pumpkin spice – Instead of a cinnamon sugar coating, here we use a pumpkin spice sugar coating. It’s a festive way to enhance the seasonal flair of these cookies!
How to Make This Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe
1: Brown the Butter
- Add the butter to a medium saucepan over medium heat.
- Once melted, adjust the heat down slightly and continue cooking.
- Let it cook until the solids in the bottom of the saucepan turn brown and smell nutty, about 4 minutes.
2: Make the Cookie Dough and Let it Chill
- Transfer the brown butter (including the brown bits on the bottom of the saucepan) to a large bowl along with the brown sugar.
- Use a handheld electric mixer to beat until combined, and then beat in the pumpkin and vanilla.
- After that, beat in the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt.
- The dough will look a bit lumpy at this point.
- Add the egg yolk.
- Beat in the egg yolk until well-combined. Cover the bowl and chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F and get out 2 large baking trays lined with parchment paper (if desired for easy cleanup; unlined trays are also fine here). Combine the ingredients for the cinnamon spice coating in a shallow bowl.
3: Scoop, Roll, and Bake the Cookies
- Use a 1.5-tablespoon-sized scoop to measure out the dough.
- Roll the dough into balls and then roll each dough ball twice in the cinnamon spice coating. Arrange the coated dough balls on the baking trays.
- Slightly press down on the dough balls to flatten the tops.
- Bake until the cookies are golden on the bottom, set along the outside, and puffed in the center, about 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through. When you rotate the trays, firmly tap them on a hard surface a couple times to help them crackle. Once the cookies are baked, let them cool for 2 minutes on the trays, and then use a thin metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Storage
Once they’re cool, store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Make-Ahead
You can make this cookie dough ahead of time and freeze it until you want to bake the cookies. To freeze this cookie dough before baking:
- Measure out the cookie dough and roll it into balls (but don’t roll the balls in the sugar coating yet).
- Place the cookie dough balls onto a parchment-lined baking tray and freeze (uncovered) until solid.
- Once frozen, add the cookie dough balls to an airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months.
- To bake, thaw the cookie dough balls on a baking tray in the fridge overnight. Then follow the rest of the recipe as directed; roll the cookie dough balls in spiced sugar, and bake.
Tips For Success
- I know it’s strange to add a single egg yolk at the end, but trust the process. Egg yolk is a natural emulsifier, and it helps create a silky-smooth cookie dough.
- Double-rolling the cookie dough balls in spiced sugar helps make sure they’re fully coated. This not only adds the perfect flavor, but helps them crackle.
- Don’t skip chilling the dough. Just a quick 30-minute stint in the fridge is all it needs! Chilling the dough helps make sure the cookies doesn’t spread too much while baking, lets the flavors blend, and makes them nice and chewy.
- To prevent snickerdoodles that are too puffy, make sure to gently flatten each cookie dough ball once they’re arranged on the baking trays. Also, be careful to measure your flour carefully (for the most accuracy, use a kitchen scale to weigh it).
- You can bake two trays of cookies at a time. However, if you’re only baking half a batch or one tray now (because this cookie dough freezes beautifully and you can bake it later!), the cooking time will be a little less. Check them for doneness around 2 minutes earlier.
- To help get those gorgeous crackled tops, firmly tap the cookie trays on a hard surface mid-way through baking.
- If you want perfectly round cookies, do the viral TikTok trick where you swirl the glass or mug around the cookie while they’re still hot on the baking tray.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do snickerdoodles need cream of tartar?
Yes! Well, they need something acidic to activate the leavening agent, and to create the subtly tart flavor they’re known and loved for. Traditionally, it’s cream of tartar.
If you don’t have cream of tartar, you can subtitle with double the amount of distilled white vinegar in this recipe. (So for one batch of this recipe you’d need 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar.)
Why does snickerdoodle dough need to be refrigerated?
Chilling this dough makes sure that the cookies are chewy, and don’t spread or flatten too much while baking. It also gives the flavors the chance to blend together beautifully.
How do you know when snickerdoodles are done?
The cookies are done when they’re golden on the bottom, set along the outside, and puffed in the center.
More Crackle Top Cookies to Make
Let’s Connect
Did you make this recipe? Please rate it and leave a comment below. You can also tag @anediblemosaic on social media.
To stay up-to-date, follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter!
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies Recipe
Yields: 18 cookies
Inspired by the iconic cookie, pumpkin snickerdoodles are crispy outside, chewy inside, and full of warm spices. They're a great easy fall cookie recipe!
Email This Recipe
Get this recipe link emailed straight to your inbox!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter browned
- 1 cup light brown sugar not packed
- 1/4 cup pumpkin puree
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin spice
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 tablespoons granulated white sugar
- 1/2 tablespoon pumpkin spice
Instructions
- To brown the butter, add it to a medium saucepan over medium heat. Once melted, adjust the heat down slightly and continue cooking until the solids in the bottom of the saucepan turn brown and smell nutty, about 4 minutes.
- Transfer the brown butter (including the brown bits on the bottom of the saucepan) to a large bowl along with the brown sugar. Use a handheld electric mixer to beat until combined, and then beat in the pumpkin and vanilla. After that, beat in the flour, pumpkin spice, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Lastly, beat in the egg yolk.
- Cover the bowl and chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 350F and get out 2 large baking trays lined with parchment paper (if desired). Combine the ingredients for the cinnamon spice coating in a shallow bowl.
- Use a 1.5-tablespoon-sized scoop to measure out the dough. Roll the dough into balls and then roll each dough ball twice in the cinnamon spice coating. Arrange the coated dough balls on the baking trays. Slightly press down on the dough balls to flatten the tops.
- Bake until the cookies are golden on the bottom, set along the outside, and puffed in the center, about 12 to 15 minutes, rotating the trays once halfway through. When you rotate the trays, firmly tap them on a hard surface a couple times to help them crackle. (Note that if you’re baking the trays one at a time, they take about 2 minutes less to bake.)
- Once the cookies are baked, let them cool for 2 minutes on the trays, and then use a thin metal spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
- Storage: Once they’re cool, store these cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
- Measure out the cookie dough and roll it into balls (but don’t roll the balls in the sugar coating yet).
- Place the cookie dough balls onto a parchment-lined baking tray and freeze (uncovered) until solid.
- Once frozen, add the cookie dough balls to an airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months. 4 To bake, thaw the cookie dough balls on a baking tray in the fridge overnight. Then follow the rest of the recipe as directed; roll the cookie dough balls in spiced sugar, and bake.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 144kcal | Carbohydrates: 23g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 24mg | Sodium: 100mg | Potassium: 54mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 703IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 18mg | Iron: 1mg
Nutritional information is automatically calculated and should be used as an approximate.
Share it with me on Instagram and leave a comment to let me know your thoughts!
I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.
Free Bonus
