As it turns out, snickerdoodles are one ingredient away from becoming the perfect fall cookie. They already have the quintessential fall spice (cinnamon) in the sugar coating, so adding canned pumpkin seems like the perfect addition. Include a few other fall spices like nutmeg and ground ginger, et voila! Pumpkin snickerdoodles are chewy, pumpkiny and lightly spiced with the signature snickerdoodle tang and crackly coating. These are some of my very favorite fall cookies.

Ingredients for Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

• Butter: Soften the butter to room temperature so it creams nicely with the sugar. Creaming the butter and sugar together the right way adds a lot of nice volume and chewiness to the cookies.
• Sugars: Our pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe uses a mix of granulated and brown sugars. Granulated sugar creates a crispy outside, and brown sugar maintains a moist center and a subtle caramel flavor.
• Canned pumpkin: At Taste of Home, we’ve found that canned pumpkin delivers more consistent results than homemade pumpkin puree. And yes, there is a best canned pumpkin brand that beats out the rest!
• Egg yolk: We’ll need just one egg yolk to bind the ingredients. Egg yolks add richness and fat, while egg whites can dry out cookies a bit. Save your egg white for an egg white cocktail (like a pisco sour or gin fizz) or for tomorrow morning’s scrambled eggs.
• All-purpose flour: All-purpose flour is the best flour for cookies. Its mix of hard and soft wheat creates a tender cookie that’s strong and sturdy enough not to break apart in your hand.
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch soaks up some of the liquid in the pumpkin puree so the cookies stay chewy instead of becoming cakey.
• Spices: Our pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie recipe has a lot of spice from cinnamon, nutmeg and ground ginger. I always like to grate my nutmeg fresh for the boldest flavor.
• Cream of tartar: True snickerdoodles contain cream of tartar to give the cookies that signature snickerdoodle tang and pillowy texture.
• Leavening agents: A perfect mixture of baking soda and baking powder makes our pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies even more pillowy soft.

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