Skinny Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These Skinny Pumpkin Snickerdoodle cookies should really come with a warning label, because they are so good and hard to stop at just one!
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
A snickerdoodle is a type of sugar cookie made with cream of tartar and rolled in cinnamon sugar. This pumpkin spice version was inspired by my Skinny Snickerdoodles. I wanted to see what would happen if I coated them with pumpkin spice instead, the results were pumpkin spice heaven! More of my favorite pumpkin recipes are Skinny Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Spice No-Bake Cheesecake, and Pumpkin Butterscotch Bars.
These pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies are lighter than the traditional Snickerdoodles and made with white whole wheat flour instead for added fiber.
Snickerdoodle Cookie Tips
- I noticed some people commented on the original snickerdoodle recipe that the dough was too dry, and yes, the dough will be dry. I’ve made them several times with success; using wet hands to form them into balls is a must and will help moisten the dough.
- Some comments below, people added a little pumpkin puree to the mix along with butter with great success.
- You can add extra pumpkin pie spice to the batter if you want more pumpkin flavor.
How To Make Pumpkin Spice
Make your own pumpkin spice and add it to your morning coffee or your favorite pumpkin recipes!
Combine 4 teaspoons of ground cinnamon with 2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cloves and 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Mix all the ingredients and store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.
More Pumpkin Recipes you Might Enjoy:
- Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
- Pumpkin Banana Pecan Bread
- No Bake Pumpkin Spiced Cheesecake
- Pumpkin Butterscotch Bars
- Skinny Pumpkin Pie
Skinny Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 1-3/4 cups King Arthur white whole wheat flour, or all purpose white
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1 tbsp honey or agave
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 3 tbsp sugar*
- 1 tbsp pumpkin spice*
- cooking spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with Silpat mats and spray with cooking spray.
- Combine flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.
- Combine 1 cup of sugar and butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended. Add the agave, vanilla and egg; beat well. Gradually add the flour mixture to the sugar mixture, beating just until combined. Cover and chill for 10 minutes.
- In a medium bowl, combine 3 tbsp sugar with pumpkin pie spice, stirring with a whisk to combine. With wet hands (you can keep a cup of water close), shape dough into 42 (1-inch) balls. Roll balls in sugar/pumpkin pie spice mixture.
- Place balls 2 inches apart onto baking sheets and slightly flatten with a fork.
- Bake 375°F for 5-7 minutes (cookies will be slightly soft). Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Remove from pans; cool completely on wire racks. Enjoy!
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Has anyone tried these with King Arthur gluten free all purpose flour or similar? Trying to adapt these for my daughter who has celiac.
These are super tasty but honestly, they are just “healthier” because they are super super small. Getting 42 cookies out of this would take a dollhouse sized cookie scoop. I made small cookies and only got to 26!
Delicious and easy to make!
Soft, chewy, and delicious. Yummy 😋
We loved these!
I’m wondering if anybody has used stevia instead of sugar and would that work
Delish, I added pumpkin to them and they were great! https://denosdiner.com/desserts/ty2tezaoiqadyceobiyg5z70j0uget
These were simply to make and are extra delicious and soft! Would definitley make again and they’re the perfect fall treat
I made these cookies and my family and I devoured them. They were very easy to make, which was a plus as they were packed with flavour and super soft. If you’re craving a pumpkin treat, I highly recommend them.
Thanks, Gina, for the recipe.
Made 2 batches, first batch dough seemed a tad dry. I added 1 Tbsp water. It helped. These are so yummy! Second batch, by accident the dough ended up being in the fridge for about 45 min. The dough seemed a little moister and raised a little I’m sure from the soda. These are so dang good! Thank you Gina!
Amazing fall cookie with a nice ‘chew’.
Love them just hard to quit eating them!
They are smaller than pictured from my batch.
Plan to make again as I have lots of leftover sugar/pie spice.
I made this receipt despite all the comments, but I also found this dough to be really dry. Really really dry. Like, a pile of crumbs dry. So, like others, I added about a 1/4 cup of pumpkin, which did the trick to make them dough-like and added a nice color to the cookies! Baked for about 7 minutes.
Is pumpkin pie spice the same as pumpkin spice? Pumpkin pie spice seems easier to find in my area.
These absolutely had the best texture of any snickerdoodle I’ve made. My other ones have often come out too flat. And I love the pumpkin spice twist. However, there is no salt in this recipe, and I think it needs some. Maybe only 1/4 tsp for this batch. So I’m writing that onto my printed recipe.
I was wondering if you have tried these using a sugar substitute?
I have not, I am sure it would work.
Can I substitute almond flour for the white wheat flour?
I am not sure? Have not tried.
Had anyone ever made these in an air fryer?
My oven is down and the new one is not here yet!
If so – what temp did u use? How long?
Thank you!
How do you store these?
Air tight container or you can freeze them.
Can I substitute half of the sugar for baking sugar substitute? Thanks!
I’m confused that there is no actual pumpkin puree in these? These are basically just snickerdoodles.
Correct, with pumpkin spice.
With pumpkin pie spice mix
Agree. They’re pumpkin spice snickerdoodles. Not pumpkin snickerdoodles. Misleading to say the least and rather disappointed after reading over the ingredients.
Have you tried putting any pumpkin in the cookie itself? Trying to figure out if it would be too “pumpkiny” and/or what to leave out.
that’s what I’m wondering–but not that it would be too pumpkiny. thought there would be pumpkin in the dough, not just pumpkin pie spice replacing the cinnamon. thinking of trying these, but using some pumpkin to replace some butter. Thinking cookie would be soft, but i don’t mind that for a “skinny” cookie. Any thoughts Gina?
Worked for me! Added pumpkin to the butter step 🙂
Did you add pumpkin instead of the butter?
Very easy, very good.
I used maple syrup instead of the sugar, so I dropped the temperature down to 350F. I also ran out of pumpkin pie spice so I had to make some from scratch. The fresh ground cloves (I only had whole cloves, so I had to grind some) were amazing with this. Thank you!
I swapped honey for agave and pure maple syrup for vanilla (as I was out and had everything else) and used regular I bleached flour and my kids are so happy with them!
Delicious and fun cookies to involve my 4 year old in, as he enjoyed rolling them in the sugar/spice. Everyone loves them and they were quite easy!
Like some of the mother commenters, my dough turned out too dry. I added 2-3 tablespoons of pumpkin purée and they turned out perfectly.
it’s the whole wheat flour that makes it dry plus you have to chill the dough longer for any cookie . . I studied baking in NYC and whole wheat makes bake goods rougher in texture and drier. I have always made them with white flour-zero issues. today I used 1 cup white flour and 3/4 wheat flour . we will see what happens.
Great!
Just made them! Absolutely delicious! <3
After reading some comments I decided to add an extra egg and an extra T of butter (well, also because I had 5 T left in a stick I was using). I also used stone ground whole wheat flour because that's what I had on hand. The dough was definitely a little dry, but it worked and the cookies taste great! Also, I needed closer to 10 min for baking, but my cookies were bigger and some were in Pyrex.
I used butter Crisco…and it was crumbly, but I don't think that was the issue. Read through the comments, and since I had pumpkin puree on hand, I added 1/3 cup of pumpkin to the honey/vanilla/egg round. They turned out perfect with that addition!!
My balls were a little big so baking 5-7 min wasn't enough…I think I baked them for a total of close to 20-25 min?? I kept checking and it was too soft I think…when they came out of the oven…it was sooooo good, crispy on the outside and soft in the inside – however, they were too hard in the morning :p i need to bake them for less amount of time…
Yum! I added 1/4 c canned pumpkin puree to the dough and these turned out great.
My boyfriend an I loooove these cookies! I used King Arthers whole wheat flour and they turned out great!
These cookies came out perfect and were a huge hit! While trying to soften margarine in the microwave, I made the mistake of melting most of it. Perhaps this was the reason my dough came out moist and not crumbly like others had mentioned. I made 37 cookies, and ended up cooking them for about 9 minutes. They came out chewy and no one suspected they were healthy!
One more comment, I made these with King Arthur's regular whole wheat flour (not white). They tasted great!
My granddaughter is allergic to wheat flour. Can it be substituted with white Flour?
White flour is also made from wheat so I don’t think that would help.
I added an ounce of canned pumpkin and the dough was much easier to work with. Cookies are delicious!
I too had an issue with my batter being VERY crumbly. I used King Arthur white whole wheat flour like the recipe states, and honey.
I use wet hands to form them into balls but I really had to fight it to make them hold together. I haven't put them in the oven yet, but I'm worried they are going to be hard and dense instead of light and fluffy like a snickerdoodle should be (I've made regular snickerdoodles in the past with good results). Let's hope these are edible.
Oh and I only got about 23 of the 1 inch balls. I don't see how in the world it would be possible to get 42 one inch balls, unless you made them super teeny tiny, way smaller than 1 inch.
Made these twice. Such a hit. Heaven right out of the oven. Stay nice and soft even next day- they haven't lasted more than a day.
***** 5 stars
I followed the recipe exactly. Mine are a crumbly mess. They even broke apart while baking. Haven't tried the pieces yet, but this definitely needs something to hold it together better. My hands were wet when making the balls too. What a mess!
ok ladies I made these the other night, excellent and in response to the cookies sticking, glad I read that. as gina says use water on your fingers when rolling and keep dough in the frig inbetween baking if you are baking in batches. This helps a lot.
Has anyone had success throwing in a bit of pure pumpkin in? Gina I also was wondering if it would hurt to throw some flax seed in? Thank you
also I don't have king Arthur white whole wheat. I always use bobs red meal organic whole wheat pastry flour- it worked terrific in this recipe
made these 2 days ago. They lasted only 24hrs in my house- and that was with a lot of restraint. Delicious. Added about a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to batter as well. Warm out of oven is heaven.
Huge hit with my 12yr old, 10yr old and 6yr old.
Thank you for a great recipe
I just made these for a meeting I have tomorrow and they are incredible! Like someone else said, I had a hard time telling if they were done or not so they're a little crunchy, but they taste wonderful! I'm just hoping that my husband and I don't eat them all before I get them to my meeting!!!
Could I use oat flour to make these?
I just made these.. I thought too that the mixture seemed a little dry.. However when I took it out of the fridge and make them into the balls like the recipe said they were moist enough to not crumble.. they are cooler on the racks right now and they smell is making everyone salivate! lol
Gina – could I use almond flour for this recipe? Do you think it would turn out ok? They sound lovely but I am trying to cut out as much gluten as possible from my diet….thanks!
I am making these tonight for company tomorrow! Can't wait.
These are AMAZING. I may need to leave the house so I don't exceed my limit of two. I now officially love you. Seriously, in my house, a common question is now, "Was this Gina's recipe?"
Does anyone know how to save these on evernote? My evernote clipper doesn't seem to work on this site.
My husband doesn't like pumpkin (but I adore it!) SO I think i might try half of the cookies with pumpkin pie spice, half apple pie spice! What do you think, Gina? 🙂
they sound yummy!
These were great…I mistakenly put the pumpkin pie spice right into the dough but they turned out great…I would use a little less sugar next time!
Is there a way to make these gluten free?
Like just replace the whole wheat flour with almond flour?
I noticed that some people said they had to get pumpkin pie spice. I make my own with 1tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, 1/4 tsp ginger, and 1/8 tsp cloves. All of these are ground spices that i usually have on hand. Thank you, Gina, for your hard work in the kitchen. I have not tried anything from skinnytaste that has not been yummy. I'm sure a lot of testing has to happen before the perfect product can be passed on to the people. I appreciate it!
thank you!
I didn't have time to look through the rest of the comments, so excuse me if someone already brought this up. 🙂 I substituted pureed pumpkin for the butter. I added about 2 extra tbsps than the amount of butter requested. They turned out GREAT and less fat. 🙂
Was out of Vanilla and substituted Almond Extract. THESE ARE AWESOME. Thank you, Gina!!!
Can't wait to make these tonight! Is it okay if I use all-purpose flour instead? Hope the turnout will still be the same.
Made these last night and they turned out great! I was worried about the crumbly dough but I checked out the reviews and was glad to see others had the same problem. I think next time I need to make my hands even more wet but overall everything turned out well. The cookies aren't the most beautiful thing I've ever made but they taste absolutely delicious!
The only complaint I have about these cookies is that they are too good! My boyfriend and I couldn't stop eating them! They didn't last the weekend! The dryness was manageable with damp fingers, as Gina mentioned, and I made the recipe exact. I used white flour, rather than pastry flour and still had success. My mixer was not too fond of the dough at the end, as it kept jamming because the dough was very thick — but it worked out regardless. I used a nonstick cookie sheet sprayed with canola oil cooking spray and had no problems removing the cookies from the sheet. Now off to find a pumpkin oatmeal recipe on here…
OMG!!!!! These cookies were fantabulous!!! They were fantastic and fabulous all in one little cookie. They were easy to make, my seven year old son helped me. I was a little concerned when my dough came out so dry but I just kept on and they turned out perfect. I made them to big and only ended up with 26. Needless to say, there is not a single cookie left!!
These look fabulous! Do you think it would be possible to substitute canned pumpkin for the eggs and butter?
Someone commented above that they used pumpkin in place of butter and they worked, not sure about the eggs.
I saw these and got SO excited!! what a yummy fall treat. I'm on the Atkins diet though, so I think that I can switch some ingredients to make these Atkins friendly…I am going to try this w/ Almond flour, Splenda brown sugar blend and Splenda drops and I think that might do it!
There are cookies on the horizon this weekend! Thank you for posting such amazing recipes!!!!
Made this yesterday and oh man are they good!! I used parchment paper sprayed with cooking spray and didn't have any problems. The batter is very dry but using wet hands really worked! I made them a little bigger than one inch so I ended up with 25 cookies. YUM!
Perfect, glad they worked for you!
It looks delicious,I have strong feeling that I want to eat it~
Well, I am a huge SkinnyTaste AND pumpkin AND snickerdoodle fan, so of course I had to whip these babies up ASAP! Made a batch tonight and the family went wild, proclaiming that they "never wanted any other kind of snickerdoodle cookie ever again!"
I will admit that I got a little worried in the beginning about how they were going to turn out when my batter was like coarse crumbs, but you just have to trust Gina and use wet hands when rolling the batter into balls – it does come together and turn out wonderfully!
I have a feeling this won't be the last time I'm making these this fall… thanks Gina for another home-run at only 50 calories! Yay! PS: I got nowhere near 48 cookies, I ended up with 18??
So glad you liked them, Yours were certainly bigger than mine!
Wonderful! I did use two eggs and the batter was much less crmbly. Also you can easily use 4 tbsp cinnamon, 1 tbsp nutmeg, 1/2 tbsp ginger and 1/2 tbsp allspice to make pumpkin pie spice. Wet hands are essential. Thank you Gina!!!!!!
Good to know about the pumpkin pie spice recipe because I just had to go out and buy a tiny bottle of it for $7! Maybe this tip will save some folks a couple bucks and a trip to the store at night needed to satisfy a pumpkin craving…ha!
Yes, wet hands are a must!
Ruh roooohhh. Boyfriend's favorite cookie? Snickerdoodle. Boyfriend being born on Halloween? Natural disposition to obsess over pumpkin and pumpkin spiced things. I just showed this recipe to him and his eyes grew wide and is demanding this to be made ASAP.
GEE THANKS, GINA. 😉
Aww, that's cute!
These look amazing! Can't wait to try them!!
These look fantastic. I'm hoping to test them out. 🙂
YUMMY!!! 🙂
Thank you for this recipe!
I made these today, but used 1/4 Cup of fresh pumpkin pureé in place of the egg and 1/2 the butter… YUM, and even less points!
Awesome!
Love pumpkin spice snickerdoodles – can't wait to try this skinny version!
Tis the season for all things pumpkin spice! These look sinful 🙂 in a good way of course!
i absolutely LOVE pumpkin!
http://therealfoodrunner.blogspot.com
Just finished making these and can't stop eating them!! Thanks for the recipe!!
So glad you liked them, aren't they good!! 🙂
Just made them. FABULOUS. My daughter, prior to me making them, declared she didn't like snickerdoodles. Yes. Yes she does. Thank you!!
Awesome!!
Oh my god these look delicious! I need to attempt to make these!!
themacaronaddict.blogspot.co.uk
OMG… Made these last night…. They are Freaking Awesome… LOVE THEM without the guilt 🙂
Yay, I am glad they worked for you!!!
How would you compare white whole wheat flour to whole wheat pastry flour?
I added maple syrup instead of honey/agave. Delicious! It did not make 42 (more like 38 and that was keeping them at 1 tsp).
Is there a wet ingredient missing? I just made the dough and it looks like breadcrumbs…
I wondered the same thing. Mine fell all to pieces.
I agree mine were all crumbs. I remade them thinking I messed then up and got the same
Ugh, do yourself a favor: pick a different snickerdoodle recipe & just add pumpkin pie spice. I usually LOVE all the recipes on skinnytaste, but I am fairly certain I haven't angered any God enough to do the kind of battle I had to do with this dough.
I'm surprised that it didn't work for some of you, I make these all the time and see people posting this snickerdoodle recipe with success on my instagram. Perhaps adding a few drops of water with be the solution for you, I found using wet hands was enough to wet the dough and hold them together.
Did you use the same pastry flour? Just trying to see if you did anything different.
I had to use a generic brand whole-wheat white flour (my store only had regular white King Arthur Flour) and I had the same problem with dryness and crumbly batter. I also used honey instead of agave since they seemed interchangeable.
I also had a problem telling if the cookies were baked all the way through, so they ended up over-baked and a bit crunchy. But the taste was good!
My batter was sooo dry, too. I used a different whole-wheat flour. I ended up adding a good half-cup or more of water, and the dough was just a pain.
I had the dryness issue, too. I plopped in about 1/4-1/3 cup pumpkin puree and that made it come together nicely, and they baked up really well and are TASTY!
My cookies also turned out like cooked balls of flour. I followed the recipe exactly, and chose honey instead of agave. They were not edible.
Hellllp! This may be stupid, but how do I keep my hands moist the whole time!? I tried! And then I tried to add water to the dough…and that wasn't a good plan.
My cookies were dry and crumbly…so they are ugly…but delicious! But I can't bring ugly cookies to the Halloween party this weekend!
Loved the pictures. And since I love spices I am sure I'd love the cookies too.
So excited! I have everything I need for these!
Could you add some pumpkin purée to offset the dry dough?
I added about 1/3 cup of pumpkin purée and deducted the 1 tbsp of honey or agave and the dough was still light after baking. Tasty!
Oooh yes, let pumpkin season begin!! These are going on my Pumpkin-dedicated Pinterest board!
These look AWESOME.. can't wait to make them in a few weeks when the pumpkin cravings kick in!
Those look absolutely amazing!!!
I've made a pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe that also has pumpkin puree in the dough. Would this boost the points too much?
These look incredible, Gina! Such a wonderful fall treat skinny-fied. Love it!
Just made a batch and mine didnt make 42 cookies…maybe I made them to big?
doesn't matter they are good!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'll send you a picture Gina!!
Diane
I always end up with fewer cookies, too, no matter the recipe!
My recipe made 34…still amazing and super low in calories for a great treat!
What could you substitute regular white sugar for? I am trying to avoid it- could you use stevia, agave, etc? and how much? Thanks so much!
Mmmm… i need this with my daily cup of hot green tea! Yum!!
Can you use regular whole wheat flour? whats the difference?
these are perfect! yikes!!!
Hi is there a substitute for cream of tartare? Can't make it to the store but I have everything else on hand
Love love these Gina!!
*/is
These look absolutely amazing! I've been craving pumpkin spiced late (not sure if you have a recipe or not, I'll have to church) and these would go great with it in the morning! I'll have to get pumpkin dice as I don't have it, but will do so today!
Just a quick side comment: I've just recently jumped on the blogging bandwagon (through pinterest) and I don't typically check blogs regularly except when is pinned. I'm happy to say, I have started checking yours regularly! Love your recipes! Keep them coming!
LOL just checked my pantry and I do have the FLOUR (used it for a different SKINNYTASTE recipe ) and now i just need the pumpkin pie spice!!!
No SILPAT MATS though – do you spray the sheet or not?
Diane
Oh dear – I have every single ingredient on-hand. I will have to make this ASAP!
Did you use regular sugar or a sugar substitute?
Regular sugar
Just to say there was extra sugar left at the end, so I deducted them from the n.i.
Hi! What are the * for by sugar and pumpkin pie spice? Love all of your recipes… just did the Banana Split bars, but subbed in pumpkin and were awesome!
I think the asterisks next to those are to set it apart; the dough itself uses 1 C of sugar, but the asterisk next to the pumpkin spice and the additional 3 TBSP is to set it apart as the sugar/spice mixture you'll roll the dough balls in. Hope that helps!
Heading to the store to pick up the flour and pumpkin pie spice….its supposed to cool down a bit here in Farmingdale over the next few days and this will be a good thing to do!
Thanks Gina!!!
Diane
I know, looking forward to the cooler temps!
if you don't have those SILPAT MATS what do you do to the cookie sheet?
Diane
maybe parchment paper or non stick cookie sheets
parchment paper. silpats are the replacement for parchment 🙂 love my silpats. well worth the investment