This easy Pumpkin Snickerdoodles cookie recipe is absolutely irresistible and is made with pumpkin spice. These quick cookies resemble your favorite pumpkin pie using pumpkin puree. These will be an instant family hit, perfect for any get-together or at-home party!
Why This Recipe is the Best
One of our top cookies on Pinterest, these festive fall treats are perfect for Halloween and harvest parties. A simple, yet delicious spin on your favorite traditional snickerdoodle.
When I first came up with this recipe, I knew we had found a winner. This is by far our favorite fall cookie, and we bring it to every event. Everyone loves this recipe!
You'll also have to try our Pumpkin Roll, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin Muffins, and Pumpkin Bread.
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Key Ingredients
These ingredients are similar to traditional snickerdoodles. This recipe uses pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice!
- Butter-Use salted butter for the best results.
- Pumpkin Puree- Gives that pumpkin flavor you want, but not too overpowering. It also makes it so less butter is used compared to traditional snickerdoodles. Use canned pumpkin puree. We found when testing this recipe that homemade puree holds more water, and the texture will be off.
- Egg- Use the whole egg, and it can come straight from the refrigerator or be at room temperature.
- White Sugar- You'll need this for the cookie base and coating the outside.
- Cinnamon- Mix this in with the sugar coating for cinnamon sugar goodness.
- Baking Soda- Helps the cookies rise and get that great fluffy texture.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice- Gives the cookie all the right fall flavor. You can also use it instead of cinnamon to coat the outside of the cookie.
How to make Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Learn how to make these tasty pumpkin snickerdoodles. Don't miss our step-by-step process photos to get the textures right.
- In a stand mixer, combine the butter, sugar, pumpkin, and egg. Mix until smooth. Add the flour, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice, and mix until a dough is formed.
- Combine cinnamon and sugar. Roll balls of dough into golf ball-sized balls. Roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
- Place the rolled dough on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
- Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F for 8-10 minutes. Cool and enjoy these soft and chewy pumpkin snickerdoodles.
Hint: You don't want to reuse the cinnamon sugar after you are done rolling the dough in it. The dough has raw egg and can spoil the sugar mixture.
Common Mistakes
It's important to remember that these are Snickerdoodles with a pumpkin taste. They won't have a strong taste like a traditional pumpkin cookie. It's milder and still holds that cream of tartar taste you love in a snickerdoodle.
Top tips
The dough can get sticky when rolling into balls. To avoid this, wet your hands every few balls to help with a smooth roll.
You'll have a bunch of pumpkin puree left over. Check out our other pumpkin recipes for other ways to use it up!
Recipe
Soft Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted butter slightly softened, see Note 1
- 1 ½ cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ½ cup pumpkin puree See note 2 below
- 3 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Or
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon all spice
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ginger
Cinnamon Sugar Mixture
- 2 tablespoon sugar and 2 teaspoon cinnamon for cinnamon sugar mixture
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F.
- Cream together the sugar and slightly soft butter. You don't want softened butter or the dough will become too sticky (see note 1). Add the egg, and pumpkin to the creamed butter and sugar and mix until smooth.
- Add in the flour, cream of tarter, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice. Mix until a dough is formed.
- In a small bowl, mix together the 2 teaspoons of cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of sugar to create a cinnamon sugar mixture. See photos above for a great visual.
- Roll the dough into 1 inch balls and then coat in cinnamon sugar mixture. I find it easiest to roll the dough ball directly in the cinnamon sugar mixture. This is a sticky dough! Wet your hands while rolling out the dough so the dough doesn't stick to your hands. If you find the dough is still too sticky to work with, refrigerate for 30 minutes, then proceed.
- Place the cinnamon sugar pumpkin snickerdoodle dough balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet evenly spread out. Lightly press down on the dough to help them form correctly. Bake for 10-13 minutes. Once the cookies are matte on top, remove from the oven and cool them on the baking sheet to help the cookies finish setting.
Video
Notes
- Make sure your butter isn't too soft! If it is mushy, stick it in the fridge for about 15 minutes then use it. The butter should be cool to the touch yet soft enough you can indent it slightly when you push on it with your finger, but not mushy.
- Don't use homemade pumpkin puree, it tends to be too wet and the dough won't form properly. Organic canned pumpkin can often be too wet as well.
- Any leftover cinnamon sugar should be discarded as cookie dough with egg could contaminate it.
- Substitute cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice in a cinnamon-sugar mixture.
- This is not a pumpkin cookie! It is a snickerdoodle with a pumpkin flavor added to it. The pumpkin flavor is not strong in comparison to a traditional pumpkin cookie.
Nutrition
Substitutions
Try these fun substitutions or add-ins for some extra flavor or fun.
- Pumpkin Spice - we use cinnamon for the cinnamon sugar coating, but if you are all about that pumpkin spice, substitute the cinnamon for pumpkin pie spice at a 1:1 ratio.
- If you don't have pumpkin pie spice, the recipe card has a blend of spices that can be used instead!
- Cream Cheese Frosting- Frost the top of your cookies with cream cheese frosting. This is our favorite cream cheese frosting recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction.
- White Chocolate Chips-add 1 cup of white chocolate chips to the dough and mix in before baking.
How to Store Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These cookies are good for 3-4 days in an airtight container.
Once baked, you can freeze the cookies. You can also freeze the dough. If freezing the dough, we like to pre-roll and sugar coat before putting them in an airtight container in the freezer.
Sonja says
These are so good!! Loved them! thanks for the recipe!
Andrea says
They are a family favorite! We are so happy you liked them.
kaylene hicks says
My dough was not sticky it was solid and the balls never flatten out, taste was ok. disappointed
Nicole says
Hi Kaylene, we're sorry to hear your dough balls turned out so solid, they sound really terrible. I'm wondering if maybe you accidentally added extra flour or didn't fluff it up before measuring.
Dianne says
Delicious cookie!! Will definitely be making these again. I was just wondering if I could leave out the pumpkin and make regular snickerdoodles? Would I need to substitute something for the pumpkin?
Andrea says
Glad you loved them so much!
Yes, this make fantastic regular snickerdoodles! If you wanted to make regular snickerdoodles with this recipe you need to add an extra egg (so 2 eggs instead of 1) and then add a 1/2 cup shortening or butter. I would also reduce the flour to 2 3/4 cup. This would account for taking out the pumpkin and the moisture levels of the dough. And then of course don't add the pumpkin spice to the dough!
Gail says
These look great! I plan to make them for my book club. Do you sift the flour?
Andrea says
These are a fan favorite, you're going to love them! I don't typically sift the flour for this recipe. But be sure not to pack the flour when measuring.
Gail says
Just made these. They turned out perfect. I used sugar/pumpkin pie spice to roll the cookies in. I baked the on my pampered chef stone and they did not spread too much. Also, anytime I make snickerdoodle cookies I use a spoon to press in the sides gently as soon as they come out of the oven. Ensures chewy uniform cookies. I made 1 oz. balls so it yielded 33 cookies. Plenty big enough for us.
Sarah says
These cookies are delicious! Hands down our new favorite autumn cookie recipe. Thank you.
Gabby B says
So so soft and not dry at all! These were so easy to make and are seriously perfect for fall!!
Andrea says
We are so happy you love them! They are one of our all time favorite recipes!