Sis Blogging Partner and I have been wanting to try out some more snickerdoodle recipes, especially since the initial one we tried a few Christmases ago. To us, snickerdoodles are thick, soft, chewy and subtly sweet, kind of like the sugar cookie’s grown up sibling. Except, that one recipe we’ve tried wasn’t so thick. Or so chewy. It just wasn’t completely right. And so the quest brought us to these, and these, folks, are absolutely fabulous. Cheers to Annie’s Eats for a great recipe.

Like most cookies, you’ve got the usual flour, sugar (and the brown sugar we forgot to put in the pic - heee!), etc. What these have that others do not is pumpkin and wonderfully Fall flavor! What we were most curious about? Whether you’d actually be able to taste said pumpkin.

OK, so at this point, you’ve made a pretty standard cookie dough. This time it’s pretty darn soft, though, so we’re going to put it in the fridge for at least one hour. This will make it much easier to roll up and prep for baking. Yay for free time!

Once the dough is sufficiently chilled, start rolling it on out into balls, those of which get dipped in a sugary, nutmegy, cinnamony coating of awesome. Yes, this means these cookies are slightly more work than most you tend to just roll up or drop onto a cookie sheet, but these guys are worth it.

The recipe calls for dipping a heavy-bottomed glass in some water, then a little of the sugar coating mixture, then squishing each ball of dough a little with it. In all honesty, and it’s possible we weren’t doing it right, but this just seemed to make a mess more than anything. You can use the back of a spoon to squish the cookies down a little, which we did after the first cookie sheet full, and we couldn’t see a difference in cookie quality.

Once you get the hang of rolling out the dough, coating it, squishing them down, and you’re rhythm is set, in no time you’ll be overrun by delicious, pumpkiny awesome cookies. And yes - you can definitely taste the pumpkin! The flavors are subtle, but they come through a little stronger the next day. These are a little more delicate than I thought they’d be, but they are soft. And they are thick. And chewy. And DEElicious! Pretty much our idea of a perfect snickerdoodle!

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

from Annie’s Eats

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: about 10-12 minutes per cookie sheet Level: Easy Makes: 30-40 cookies

For the cookies:

• 3¾ cups all-purpose flour
• 1½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ cup light brown sugar
• ¾ cup to 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 large egg
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the coating:

• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground ginger
• Dash of allspice

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl and mix to blend. Scoop the dough (about 2½ tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill the sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy-bottomed drinking glass in water, then in the sugar-spice mixture, and use the bottom to flatten the dough balls slightly. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed. Alternately, you can use the back of a spoon to slightly flatten the cookies.

Bake each sheet of cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until just set and baked through. Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Notes:

Like usual with many cookies, we baked these until the edges were just starting to show a little brown, but no more than this.

I changed the amount of pumpkin above to reflect the fact that we upped our amount to one cup since I puree my own pumpkin these days and store it in quart size bags, one cup each. This was so we didn’t waste any pumpkin, but also to get a stronger pumpkin flavor, hopefully. Do whichever amount appeals to you. Taste your dough to see how pumpkin-infused it is and whether you’re happy with it.

This does make a lot of cookies, but your amount will of course depend on the size dough balls you roll out.

For the sugar coating mixture, if you have all the spices listed and want to use them, then do so, but if you have pumpkin pie spice, you can substitute it if you prefer or just need to. Just add a few dashes at a time and taste till you get the right mixture for you. We probably used about half to three quaurters teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice in ours.

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