This easy Pumpkin Snickerdoodles cookie recipe is absolutely irresistable and is made with pumpkin spice. This 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!
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. You'll have to also try our Pumpkin Roll, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, Pumpkin Muffins, and Pumpkin Bread,.
Be sure to check out our other fall favorite treats like Fall Maple Cookies and pumpkin inspired recipes like, Banana Pumpkin Muffins, Pumpkin Bars, and pumpkin chocolate swirl bread. Add these and our Halloween Strawberries to a tasty Halloween charcuterie board.
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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.
- All-Purpose Flour- The base of the cookies. Use a gluten free flour to make this a gluten free option.
- 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.
See recipe card for quantities.
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.
2. Combine cinnamon and sugar. Roll balls of dough into golf ball sized balls. Roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.
4. Place the rolled dough on a parchment paper line baking sheet.
5. 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.
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.
Helpful Hint
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 more mild and still holds that cream of tartar taste you love in a snickerdoodle.
How to Store Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These cookies are good for 3-4 days in an air tight 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.
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.
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.
Karolyn says
These are the perfect fall season treat! For anyone who enjoys pumpkin or spice, these are for you. Perfect amount of pumpkin that gives a nice subtle hint of flavor without overpowering the classic snickerdoodle cookie.
JC says
WOW!!! My daughter made these for dessert and they were so so good. Pumpkin and snickerdoodles were made for each other.
Toni says
These are really amazing!! It was a huge hit at my house!
Shara Nelson says
These are so delicious, perfect for fall. And I think my favorite part is that they taste almost just as good the next day!
Candace Carlisle says
These were a fun cookie to try. I had never thought of mixing pumpkin and snickerdoodle.
Karrie says
These are very good 👍 I will be adding these to my fall baking list. Don't over cook my only additional ingredient was some vanilla paste.
Julie says
These are so delicious and easy to make! I love that you added adjustments to the recipe to double or triple it. Thank you!
Ashley M says
These were so delicious and light! I put the dough in the fridge to harden a bit since I hand mixed and it was a bit sticky. I also didn’t have cream of tartar so I substituted with a tsp of lemon juice. But they turned out wonderful! Will definitely make again.
Nicole says
Ashley, we're so glad you loved them as much as we do!
Briana Rieben says
These were so good!! I love a soft snickerdoodle and these were so soft a fluffy. They tasted just like fall
Katie Hoyt says
So delicious and easy!
Shep 2 says
These pumpkin snickerdoodle’s came out perfect.
Andrea says
We love to hear this! Thank you so much, we are glad you enjoyed them.
Sammi says
These are SO GOOD! I loved the flavors and softness! A perfect fall treat!
Jay Branche says
LOVED THE RECIPE!
Is the nutrition for 2 dozen cookies?
Andrea says
Glad you loved them! They are my favorite this time of year. Thanks for bringing that to my attention. It should be for 2 cookies. I changed it to reflect that!
Kaitlin says
Oh I hate to be this person. Although they came out looking great, I can’t say the same about the taste. I had to cook them longer - 12 min instead of 8-10. They also kind of taste like …nothing? The pumpkin flavor doesn’t come through. Texture was also strange. I really wish these worked.
Andrea says
Thanks for your feedback! Sorry these weren't what you were looking for. This is a snickerdoodle-based cookie with pumpkin flavoring. It still holds to a true snickerdoodle. If you are looking for a strong pumpkin flavor cookie, it's best to use a traditional pumpkin cookie recipe. We have found that those who don't prefer snickerdoodles, also don't enjoy this cookie. We have also found that those who love snickerdoodles love making this cookie during the fall season!
Dae says
My dough came out really wet it wouldn’t hold together to make a ball and out in the cinnamon sugar mixture like when I make regular snickerdoodles. What could I have done to remedy this?
Andrea says
Sorry you had this issue. Pumpkin puree can vary and can have more moisture than other purees making the dough more sticky. If this happens add 1/8-1/4 cup of flour at a time until the dough is the right consistency.
Monae says
The dough was wayyyy too runny/ sticky we did everything we could to make it more dough-like. Our last resort was to put them in the freezer to harden up a little but even then it ended up being too sticky unless you fully covered it with the cinnamon sugar mix.
Other than that headache, they were good.
.
Andrea says
Sorry to hear that! What type of pumpkin puree did you use?
Elizabeth says
Huge hit! Absolutely loved these. I plan on making a bulk order for the holidays. I saw you can freeze the dough so I assume you can pre make the dough and refrigerate it. Do they need to be room temperature before baking?
Andrea says
I'm so happy you love them! This is one of my all time favorite recipes. For best results, I suggest rolling the dough into pre-made balls before freezing and then thaw them in the refrigerator before baking again. You can bake them from frozen in a time crunch but sometimes they bake uneven and can be pretty unpredictable.
Penelope says
This recipe was horrible. I followed all the instructions exactly and the cookies were either rock-hard or straight-up dough. Would not recommend to anyone who wants edible cookies
Nicole says
We're so sorry this didn't turn out for you, we'd love to help you troubleshoot. Was your butter smooshy? Did you use canned non-organic pumpkin puree? The most common mistakes we find are butter being too soft or using the wrong pumpkin (canned non-organic is the only way these turn out).
Julie says
We couldn’t taste any pumpkin at all. The recipe looked bland so I doubled the spices. It didn’t do any good. All we could taste is a dough ball.
Nicole says
Hi Julie, we are so sorry you didn't enjoy this cookie! It is primarily a snickerdoodle cookie, secondarily a pumpkin cookie. So it's supposed to be a yummy snickerdoodle with a pumpkin accent. Sorry it wasn't what you were looking for.
Eva says
I am a HUGE cookie lover, but when it comes to Snickerdoodle, I find they are never as soft and chewy and I would like them to be. This recipe was soooo good. They barely lasted the weekend. My fam can't wait for me to make them again.
Nicole says
Yaaaay! We're so glad you enjoyed these!
Doris says
Made these to take to a church supper tonight. I just tried one (and so did my husband) and we both think they are delicious. The only thing I did different to the recipe was to take the 1/2 cup of pumpkin and place it between two paper towels to soak off some of the moisture. I changed the paper towels a few times, while waiting for the butter to soften. The dough was a little sticky; however, not so much that I had to wet my hands when rolling. I used pumpkin pie spice with the sugar to roll them in. Thanks for a great recipe.
Nicole says
We're so glad you enjoyed these cookies! Great tip for soaking up some of the moisture in the pumpkin 🙂