These pumpkin snickerdoodles are everything you love about snickerdoodles and pumpkin pie in one. I love the sweet flavor and creamy texture that the white chocolate chips add, but feel free to leave them out. Adapted from my pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, this cookie dough comes together without an egg and the cookies have a wonderfully chewy texture.
I originally published this recipe in 2014. Have you ever tried them before?
If the end of summer has a silver lining, it’s that September marks the start of the Fall Baking Season. And when the weather begins to cool down, I always enjoy baking a batch of seasonal cookies. We have plenty of recipes to choose from and I have even more in my cookie cookbook!
My brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies are one of my favorites because they’re made with ultra-flavorful brown butter. (An over-the-top cookie, try them ASAP!) Then there’s my regular pumpkin cookies, which are similar to cakey muffin tops. They’re definitely delicious, but sometimes you crave a pumpkin cookie that has the same dense & chewy texture as a regular chocolate chip cookie. That’s where my beloved chewy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies come in. Today’s pumpkin snickerdoodles are a variation of that recipe. So good and always a hit!
These Pumpkin Snickerdoodles Are:
- A reader-favorite recipe since 2014.
- Deliciously spiced—and you can use homemade pumpkin pie spice!
- Egg free. See all of my egg-free baking recipes.
- Excellent both with and without white chocolate chips.
- Pretty quick—only 30 minutes of refrigerator chill time.
- One of my favorite recipes to make with leftover pumpkin puree.
My best advice: Make a double batch, because these disappear quickly!
Before You Begin, Blot the Pumpkin
This is actually optional, but I find it remarkably useful when I make brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies and soft pumpkin cookies.
Pumpkin is approximately 90% water by mass, which isn’t really useful in a chewy cookie recipe. (Think about it—there isn’t usually liquid in a chocolate chip cookie recipe, is there?) Using a paper towel, blot out some of the pumpkin’s moisture, so all that’s left is the flavor:
Here Are All of My Success Tips
- Skip the egg: What is the purpose of eggs in a cookie recipe? They bind ingredients together, tenderize the texture, and leave behind moisture. After some experimenting, I cut out the egg completely because pumpkin can replace it. If you’re in need of other egg-free cookie recipes, check out my shortbread recipe.
- Use both baking powder AND baking soda: To ensure these pumpkin snickerdoodles rise and hold their shape, use both and make sure they’re fresh. I replace them every 3 months because I find they lose their strength not much longer after that.
- Add plenty of spice: You can use store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice, plus extra cinnamon in the dough and more for the coating.
- Slightly flatten the balls before baking: The cookies won’t spread unless you give them a head-start. Slightly flatten the balls of dough before baking, as pictured below.
- Chill the cookie dough: Chilling the cookie dough helps guarantee the cookies don’t overspread. The dough only needs about 30 minutes in the refrigerator before shaping and baking. Pretty quick!
- Give it time: Let the pumpkin snickerdoodles cool on a cooling rack for a while. Like any cookie, they’re tasty warm from the oven, but I find their chewiness and flavor amplify over time. Sometimes I even leave them uncovered on the cooling rack overnight. The next day, they’re chewier and more flavorful. (Now the real test is if you can wait that long to dig in!)
These Step Photos Will Help:
While you can leave them out if desired, the white chocolate chips add texture and a deliciously sweet and creamy flavor. I love them both ways. Here is the cookie dough plain, and again with the white chocolate chips mixed in.
After 30 minutes of chilling, the cookie dough is a little more solid and sturdy and that’s because there’s butter in the dough. (Butter solidifies when it’s cold.) Use a medium cookie scoop to shape each ball of dough. You need 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie:
Roll the dough balls in a cinnamon-sugar mixture, and then arrange on a lined baking sheet. Slightly flatten the cookie dough balls with the bottom of a spoon or cup:
Plain or White Chocolate Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Considering the flavor, texture, and ease of this recipe—these pumpkin snickerdoodles are nothing short of a dream! Many readers bake them with white chocolate chips, but I love them plain. You could even swap the white chocolate chips for cinnamon chip morsels, a product by Hershey’s that you can usually find around the holidays.
P.S.: Because this recipe uses only 6 Tbsp of pumpkin puree, you may have extras to use up. Here are recipes to make with leftover pumpkin puree. Enjoy!
More Fall Baking Recipes
- Pumpkin Bars
- Maple Brown Sugar Cookies
- Pumpkin Donuts & Pumpkin Scones
- Apple Pie Bars
- Pumpkin Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Snickerdoodle Cake
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 18 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These soft & chewy snickerdoodle cookies are full of pumpkin, white chocolate, and cinnamon sugar. Warning: they disappear quickly, so make a double batch!
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (1 stick or 115g) unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 Tablespoons (86g) pumpkin puree (see note)*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice*
- optional: 1/2 cup (90g) white chocolate chips, plus a few extra for the tops
Coating
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Instructions
- 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.
- Shape & coat the cookie dough balls: 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.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. You can also freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 3 months before baking. It’s best to freeze them without the cinnamon-sugar coating. When you are ready to bake, remove the dough balls from the freezer, let sit for 30 minutes, preheat the oven, and then roll in the cinnamon-sugar topping. Here are my tips for how to freeze cookie dough.
- Pumpkin: Squeeze as much of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree as you can before adding it to the cookie dough. I simply squeeze the puree with paper towels. See photo in the post for a visual. This will help produce a less cakey cookie. Less moisture is a good thing here! Measure 6 Tablespoons AFTER the pumpkin has been squeezed/blotted. Do not use pumpkin pie filling.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can find pumpkin pie spice in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have either and want to use individual spices, use 1/4 teaspoon each: ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground allspice. This is in addition to the 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon—you will still add that.
- Chilled Dough: If you are chilling the pumpkin cookie dough for longer than 30 minutes, the cookie dough will likely have to sit on the counter at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before scooping/rolling because it will be quite cold and solid. The amount of time it needs to sit at room temperature depends on how long the dough has chilled. If I chill my cookie dough for around 24 hours, I let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
- Bigger Batch: Cookie recipe can easily be doubled by doubling each ingredient. Chill the cookie dough for 45 minutes.
- White Chocolate Chips: Feel free to leave these out or replace with chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, or cinnamon chip morsels.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: pumpkin snickerdoodles, white chocolate pumpkin snickerdoodles
These are amazing! I am baking a double batch this time because my husband (who normally doesn’t like pumpkin baking) ate them so fast. Thank you!
I made these with mini chocolate chips. They came out great! I’m a sucker for pumpkin and chocolate. The two combined are fabulous.
Hi Sally? How do you think these would taste with butterscotch chips?
YUM! I love butterscotch and pumpkin together.
Made these twice in the past 2 days, and the first time I was a little TOO anxious about making sure not to overbake them…let’s just say they were quite thin and squishy (but good flavor)! The second time, I chilled the dough in the freezer for 30min instead of the fridge, then baked for ~13-14min, and they came out thick and perfectly soft. My oven must run a little cool…
You can cut the sugar by about ~20% and they’re still very sweet. I also rolled them in leftover chai spiced sugar from your chai spice snickerdoodles, which was delicious!
I’ve been making this for like 2 years now this will be my 3 year and my family loves them just as much as I do ! They are my favorite thing to much when pumpkin season comes around!
These have become a household favorite! My husband just can’t get enough of them. I even won a fundraising baking competition with them! Thanks!
I absolutely love these cookies! It is my go to cookie recipe. I’ve just made them again.
I made these for the first time last night, and these are seriously the best cookies I have ever tasted in my life!! Thank you for introducing a new Fall staple into our family!!
Sally I saw in one of your other pumpkin cookie recipes you recommend squeezing some of the moisture out of the pumpkin for super chewy cookies. I love chewy cookies!! Would you recommend the same for these? And maybe cut out a bit of the flour??
I don’t recommend cutting out any flour, but you can squeeze out some moisture from the pumpkin before adding.
These are so good and so simple too. Only modification I made to the recipe was a touch more flour and browning the butter first. Will definitely make these again!
I just have to say this is the most amazing cookie recipe!! I love it so much and I get sooo many compliments on it every time I make them. I will say I don’t put chips in them because I like them without. I’ve also successfully made them vegan by replacing the butter with earth balance. My son is allergic to dairy and eggs so this recipe is a staple in our house!!!!
I just made a double batch of these and OMG they are incredible. My house smells like pumpkin pie. I think the tricks to having them turn out right are to weigh the flour and to chill the dough at least an hour. Once I shaped the cookies, I put the baking sheet back in the fridge while I was waiting for the oven to heat. They look just like the picture. Definitely a keeper!
I thought I LOST this recipe! I made it with dark, vegan chocolate mini chips & swapped butter for Earth Balance & used gluten free all purpose flour. I LOVED the outcome & I am super excited to have come across it again! I also made your recipe as is, no adjustments for everyone else. BOTH cookies were gone at the end of the party! Thanks so much for sharing! I wrote it down to have for future reference & of course, have your site at the top by the name so I know where to go for the good goodies! 😉
Amber, thanks for sharing! I am so glad to hear that the substitutions worked so that everyone could enjoy!
I just wanted to say thank you for this INCREDIBLE recipe! I found it last fall and have made approximately 1000 batches since then. Everyone I share them with RAVES about them and requests the recipe. I make no changes – it is perfect as written!
I just made them and they came out perfect. I didn’t let them come to room temp before I made them into balls, but they didn’t seem like they had the tendency to spread anyway. Lovely recipe.
ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!! I did have to leave the cookies in a little longer than directed, but I am in love with this recipe, thank you!
Hi Sally! I love all your recipes that I’ve made so far- you’re great! I have two questions for these. Do you think I could use brown butter in these? Also, can I omit the white chocolate chips from these? I’m making these for my sister who hates chocolate. I know, she’s CRAZY!!
Brown butter would be delicious. And you can definitely leave out the white chocolate.
I found this recipe today but didn’t have pumpkin purée….so, I used homemade applesauce and apple pie spice instead. I added a drizzle of homemade caramel on top and these are great!!! I can’t wait to try your pumpkin version next month!
Hi can I leave out the white chocolate chips in these if I just want a pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie? U know like a regular snickerdoodle but with pumpkin flavor?
You can leave out the white chips!
Is possible to leave out the pumpkin puree and replace it with eggs?
I don’t suggest that– I suggest making my snickerdoodle cookies and adding white chocolate chips.
These are my new favorite cookies! I LOVE pumpkin. And they’re so soft!
This time when I made them though, the dough was almost too soft to shape into balls, and they seem kind of wet and underbaked in the middle. I don’t know what I did wrong lol. Anyways, thanks for the great recipe!
These are fantastic! Perfect texture and full of delicious pumpkin-y flavor, I will be taking some to a holiday cookie party.
I am so glad I found these cookies! This is hands down the best cookie recipe in the world and since making them for the first time in October, I’ve probably made 10 batches to share and they get rave reviews every single time. I always direct people to your website! I omit 1/4 cup of white sugar but other than that have no changes. They are perfect every time!
I made these last night to take into work today. They are easily the best cookies I have ever made! I tripled the recipe to have enough for the whole office and they came out perfectly. They are soft, a little chewy, and the spice is just right. I tried one last night and thought they were pretty good. But when I had one with my morning coffee – holy wow! These things come alive after a little rest time. This recipe will definitely become a regular in my baking rotation. I can’t wait to see everyone else enjoying them today!
In case anyone is wondering, these work GREAT with gluten-free flour! I used a 1-for-1 type and it was perfect. I also misread and used powdered sugar instead of granulated and it didn’t cause any issues, though on the next batch I’ll try the right way and see what happens.
Thanks for sharing!
These were fabulous. Delicious and came together so quickly. I made my cookies slightly smaller and baking for 10 minutes was just right.
These cookies are delicious! My husband said they were addicting and my coworkers loved them.
Amazing cookies!!!!! My husband (the non-cookie eater) the taste tester…..along with Spencer the poodle dog and Guen the baby Boxer, loved, loved, loved them! Thank You
These are INCREDIBLE. They went so quickly! I was also in disbelief that they tasted better the second day. I didn’t think any cookie could taste better than it does when warm but these absolutely wow’ed me. They stayed so chewy!
I just made these and the taste is HEAVENLY! But, I had to make them teeny weeny to actually get them to bake correctly. My best guess is a flour problem – even though I measure the way you’ve told me to on this website. Ideas?
Also, I LOVE your recipes. You are my go-to for desserts! Thanks for sharing your passion so people like me – the one with no background skills – can make MANY delicious treats!
Trying to troubleshoot! Can you describe what you mean by bake correctly? Like, there was too much flour or too little? Spreading issue?
Happy you love my recipes!
After placing the cookies in the oven for 8 minutes and cooling for 10, I tried to use a spatula {like normal for me} to transfer them to my drying rack. But because the cookies were still quite doughy, they would collapse. The best I can describe is that they seemed undercooked. So, in an attempt to remedy, I made them smaller and cooked them longer. It did help a slight bit, but they still turned out mushy – like they were under done again. My only thought is to increase the flour slightly?
Yes, I would slightly increase the flour. And perhaps try baking for closer to 10-11 minutes. This will help!