Being a New Englander makes me hesitant to mess with one of our classic recipes. A sugar cookie covered in cinnamon sugar is something that is just begging you for an autumnal upgrade. Snickerdoodles apparently make a good jump partner to pumpkin spice, and while it's not much of a jump I wish I'd made that leap much sooner.
These pumpkin snickerdoodles are a soft, light chew and absolutely full of pumpkin flavor. There's no need for fancy techniques or special equipment, these are super quick and easy. The recipe for easy recipe doubles easily for a bake sale or cookie swap.
Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles: How to
One thing that you can't do is add pumpkin purée to a recipe and expect it to work. Water can make a huge difference in the texture of baked goods, and a lot of pumpkin contains water. With cookies, extra liquid makes them cakier.
I made a couple of changes to combat this, which aren't typically found in a traditional snickerdoodle recipe. Melted butter rather than creaming softened butter with sugar is the first ingredient in this pumpkin version. Now I have added some brown sugar, not only to add sweet to the pumpkin but also to make a chewier cookie. I also used an egg yolk in place of a whole egg.
The resulting cookie has pumpkin flavor with a soft, chewy texture. I left the cream of tartar, which is what makes snickerdoodles their tangy characteristic. Trader Joe's swaps out the usual cinnamon and sugar coating for pumpkin pie spice for even more pumpkin flavor.
Tips and Tricks
These pumpkin snickerdoodles couldn't be simpler, but I still have some tips for creating the best texture and heightening their cozy flavor:
- Don't skip the chilling step. The cooling of the dough is especially useful for shaping the cookies, and coating them in sugar is easy because they are chilled. It also helps limit how the cookies spread in the oven.
- To make an extra chewy cookie you can blot the pumpkin purée with a paper towel to take out excess water before making the dough.
- Then, try to brown the butter instead of just melting it, to really add even more toasty fall flavor. The irresistible nuttiness of brown butter goes so well with pumpkin and baking spices, it had to be on this list.
Make Them Ahead
You can prepare your cookie dough up to 3 days in advance, and store it in the fridge.
It also freezes well for up to 2 months. Scoop the cookies onto a baking sheet that will fit in your freezer and freeze. Put tram in the freezer until the dough is really solid. Place frozen dough in a zip top freezer bag. Roll the dough in the spiced sugar and bake from frozen at 1 to 2 minutes longer.
Storage Instructions
Dust these pumpkin spice snickerdoodles in your cookie jar at room temperature for 5 days. I typically revive them once they are a few days old by dipping them into my coffee or black tea. And if you're short on time, the baked cookies can be frozen for up to 2 months.
