These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are soft and chewy and full of pumpkin-spiced flavor with a cinnamon-sugar coating. Delicious pumpkin cookies in under an hour!

stack of pumpkin snickerdoodles on a cooling rack
pumpkin snickerdoodles on a parchment paper-lined cooling rack

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

Consider me 100% basic, but I have fallen completely head-over-heels for fall this year. I’ve got my windows open, that crisp-cool breeze flowing in, the bright orange and ruby red leaves rustling against maple tree branches off in the distance and me cozied up in a chunky sweater, baking these Pumpkin Snickerdoodles on the regular so my house can smell like warm fall spices all season long.

That might be an exaggeration of my life, one step too close to a rom-com and one step too far from reality — which is more like me in a stained sweatshirt and leggings, the windows shut because it’s actually kinda cold out there! and also me wishing I had a moment to bake more Pumpkin Snickerdoodles but alas, I’ll have to wait another week because work/school/errands/sleep but at least there are a few left from the last time, right? oh wait, nope — the kids ate them.

Regardless, my version of “reality fall” is quite all right with me — because if I live in a world where these fall-friendly cookies exist, that’s pretty much perfect.

pumpkin snickerdoodles on a surface with a bite taken out of one

Everything I Love About These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

I love these cookies for so many reasons, but let’s start from the top, shall we? Reason one: They’re incredibly soft and chewy. The combination of pumpkin with melted butter, brown sugar and granulated sugar gives these cookies the texture of a classic snickerdoodle with a little more tenderness. I LIKE.

Reason two: The flavor is incomparable. It tastes exactly like a pumpkin cookie and a snickerdoodle cookie had a baby, and I really love that baby. That baby — er, cookie — is a balanced combination of pumpkin, cinnamon-sugar and warm fall spices mixed together to make the very essence of fall in dessert form. This is why I can’t stop eating them (and neither can my family).

Reason three: They’re easy to make! Just mix together the dry ingredients and the wet ingredients, chill the dough, roll into balls, dip into cinnamon-sugar and bake. In less than one hour, you can achieve your highest pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie-baking dreams. Believe in yourself!

pumpkin snickerdoodles on a parchment paper-lined cooling rack

Tips for Baking the Best Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

I don’t know about you, but I’m already itching to get in the kitchen to make more of these cookies. But before we do, a few important tips:

1. Do not skip chilling the dough! The dough is super-soft right after it’s mixed, so it will spread like crazy in the oven. Just pop the dough into the fridge for about a half-hour and you’ll be right as rain.

2. Feel free to swap canned pumpkin for fresh pumpkin puree, if that’s how you roll! Also, if you do roll like that and need ideas for those pumpkin seeds, boy do I have ideas.

3. You’ll need to press down the dough balls slightly before baking because otherwise, they won’t spread very much in the oven. I pressed mine to just about 3/4- to 1-inch tall disks, and even then some of them didn’t spread enough. No worries — you can just press them down again after they’re baked.

a pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie broken in half

On that note, I’m going to make the following plan: 1) Open the windows (maybe just a crack). 2) Put on a sweater (or a sweatshirt, if none of my sweaters are clean). 3) Bake some Pumpkin Snickerdoodles (and for sure hide a few from my family, because #selfcare). This is fall at its finest, my friends.

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Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 1 review
  • Author: Stephanie
  • Prep Time: 45 minutes
  • Cook Time: 10 minutes
  • Total Time: 55 minutes
  • Yield: 16 to 18 cookies 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Bake
  • Cuisine: American
Print Recipe

Description

You’re going to love to bake these pumpkin-flavored snickerdoodle cookies in the fall! Rolled in cinnamon-sugar and baked to soft, chewy perfection, every bite is pure autumn in cookie form.

Ingredients

Scale

For the cookies:

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie mix)
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

For the cinnamon-sugar coating:

  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk melted butter, brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar until smooth and combined. Whisk in vanilla and pumpkin until smooth.
  2. In a separate large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice until well combined. Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients; stir with spatula or large spoon until a very soft dough forms. Cover dough and chill 30-45 minutes.
  3. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Roll chilled dough into 16-18 balls, about 1 1/2 tablespoons each. In a small bowl, whisk remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon for topping. Roll each dough ball in cinnamon-sugar mixture, then transfer to lined baking sheets about 2 inches apart. Press down each dough ball to flatten slightly (they won’t spread as well if you skip this step).
  4. Bake cookies one sheet at a time (refrigerate second baking sheet while first baking sheet is in oven), about 10 minutes or until edges of cookies are just set. Cookies will appear very soft and under-baked, but they will set up and bake through as they cool. Cool cookies 10 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to cooling rack to cool completely. Repeat with second baking sheet.
  5. Store baked and cooled cookies in airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Notes

  • Adapted from Sally’s Baking Addiction.
  • Chilling the dough is absolutely necessary, since the dough is so soft just after mixing. If you want to make the dough ahead of time, you can cover and chill the dough in the refrigerator up to 3 days. Just be sure to bring the dough back to room temperature before shaping and baking.
  • I pressed my dough balls down to about 3/4- to 1-inch tall disks before baking. If some cookies didn’t spread as much as I’d like in the oven, I pressed them down after baking.
  • Use leftover canned pumpkin to make Pumpkin Challah, Pumpkin Pie Brioche Rolls or Pumpkin Chai Doughnut Muffins — or freeze in a resealable freezer bag and use later to make more cookies!