Spiced Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie

These Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies are loaded with fall flavors and spiced up with apple pie spice and chipotle powder! This sophisticated take on traditional fall flavors will have your loved ones asking just what is it about these pumpkin cookies that make them so good!

What You’ll Love About These Cookies

The Texture. So often pumpkin cookies come out cakey and soft instead of chewy like a traditional snickerdoodle. Not this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie! 

The Fall Flavors. This snickerdoodle recipe is packed full of warm fall spices: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and ginger along with just a touch of Chipotle powder! 

The Make Ahead Factor. These cookies only get better with time! So make them Thursday and serve them on Saturday. Even better, make a batch weeks ahead of time to keep in the freezer.  Eliminate all the stress of needing to bake something homemade on the day of an event!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Ingredients

Spices. 

Apple Pie Spice. This underappreciated baking spice blend includes all the warming spices found in Pumpkin Pie Spice – cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger– and then adds fenugreek and lemon peel. Fenugreek has a slightly burnt sugar or maple taste, which adds a touch of depth. Lemon peel adds a note of brightness. Both great additions to the traditional fall spice flavors. 

Chipotle Morita Powder. This addition to this recipe may sound strange, but chipotles has notes of raisins and chocolate that pair especially well with pumpkin. Just a dash of this chile pepper brings a note of smoky fruitiness without adding heat. 

Pacific Flake Sea Salt. Pacific Flake Sea Salt is an all-natural kosher flake salt that is our everyday go-to salt. It may seem weird to add salt to sweet recipes, but salt helps to balance sweetness. Salt is also part of the science of baking, so don’t skip the salt. 

Cinnamon. We suggest using Vietnamese Cinnamon in this recipe. Vietnamese cinnamon is the strongest, richest, and sweetest cinnamon around.

Since it is the strongest, richest, and sweetest cinnamon around, it’s perfect for snickerdoodle recipes. 

Find these spices and over 100 more at SpiceTopia!

Looking for a collection of fresh baking spices to enhance all your holiday baking recipes? 

Pumpkin: This recipe calls for about half of a 15–ounce can of pumpkin purée. Be sure to use pumpkin purée and not pumpkin pie filling.  Pumpkin purée is 100% pure pumpkin (check the label) that has been cooked and puréed without any added sugar or spices. Read the technique section below to learn how to remove the excess moisture from the cookie. 

Cream of tartar: This ingredient is what gives snickerdoodles their signature tangy taste and chewy texture. 

Sugar: This recipe uses all brown sugar in the cookie dough recipe because of the caramel undertones and moistness it adds. And uses granulated sugar for the cinnamon sugar that the dough is rolled in. 

All-purpose flour:  Spoon and level the flour (instead of scooping the flour up with your measuring cup) to avoid compact flour. 

Baking soda: As with most holiday treats, this recipe calls for baking soda. Our big tip for baking soda: Make sure it is fresh! Test your baking soda by dropping a teaspoon in a bit of vinegar. If it fizzes immediately and vigorously, it is still good. If not, you’ll need to pick up a new box.  

Unsalted butter: Always use unsalted butter when baking. Different brands of butter use different amounts of salt, so it’s best to use unsalted butter and add the exact amount of salt needed for your recipe. 

Egg: This recipe calls for only egg yolks. The pumpkin purée actually plays the role of egg in this recipe, bonding the protein and starches in the flour. Adding two yolks adds fat and richness to the recipe without extra moisture that will make the cookie cakey.

Vanilla extract: Nothing is better than vanilla in a cookie recipe! Pumpkins, chipotle, and vanilla are all native to the Americas and their flavors all play very well together! 

Want to learn how to make your own vanilla extract? Learn How in SpiceTopia’s Step-by-Step Guide to Making Your Own Vanilla Extract.

How to Make This Easy Snickerdoodle Recipe

A few simple steps help to make these pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies special. 

Take a few extra minutes to brown your butter and then allow it to cool back down. Browning the butter removes a bit of moisture and adds a nutty flavor to these cookies. 

To brown the butter, place the butter in a medium pot or pan over medium heat. Allow the butter to cook until the milk solids turn brown. This will take between 10 – 15 minutes. While it cooks it will foam, pop, and crackle. This is normal! Stay close by to watch it, stirring occasionally, so it doesn’t burn. When the popping and crackling slows down, and the bottom of the pot is covered in brown bits of butter and smells nutty, the butter is browned. 

At this point, you’ll need to cool the butter down before using it. If you use it while it is hot, the egg in the cookie dough will scramble, creating a mess! So, place your butter in the fridge or freezer until it is cooled to room temperature. It shouldn’t be quite solid. 

This step can be done ahead of time. When it is time to make your cookies, soften your butter on the counter as you usually would with any butter. 

Another step you’ll want to take is to blot the pumpkin purée to remove excess moisture. Spread the pumpkin purée out onto a plate. Use a paper towel to soak up the moisture. Repeat several times. Stir the pumpkin up and spread out again. Blot again a few more times. You will see a visible difference in the dried pumpkin. 

And if you want to pack even more fall spices into your cookies, instead of rolling the cookies in cinnamon sugar, roll them in Chai Spice Sugar instead. 

Let’s Get Baking!