Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles
The spice is right...really right.
I’ll wait, I promise, just go out now and stock up on canned pumpkin and while you’re at the store, you should probably pick up some jars of fresh spices, especially cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. Remember the rule: If the spices in your cupboard were purchased in a different presidential administration, it’s time for new ones.
See? Politics is important for everything. And even though I’ve been admonished by some readers to keep Washington DC and my opinions about certain riot-inciting people whose civil fraud trial begins in NYC today, sometimes I can’t help myself.
Coming off the wave of last week’s corker of a pumpkin apple muffin recipe, which some of you kindly commented were “the best muffins ever,” and that your families seem to love you more now that they know you can bake muffins like that, I decided to give one of my other popular recipes a fall glow-up.
A while back, I set about to create the perfect snickerdoodles recipe for Food 52. After trying 12 different recipes, and making dozens and dozens of cookies, I created two different snickerdoodle recipes, one that is soft and puffy, and another version that is crun-chewy.
My daughter has a big birthday coming up this week, and she is a mega-fan of pumpkin bread, so I put my snickerdoodle hat back on and made my way to the kitchen counter. Much tinkering ensued, and the result is an especially tender cookie (thanks to the moist pumpkin), with fall spices inside and out. So proud was I, I got in the car, drove three hours north—I braved the Merritt Parkway for her!— and hand delivered them to my daughter. Okay, okay, yes, I missed her and needed an excuse, but AM I NOT HUMAN?
Later this week you can expect another newsletter with the strange history of both snickerdoodles, pumpkin spice, allspice and why canned pumpkin isn’t always pumpkin.
Give a listen!
This week’s episode of The Secret Life of Cookies podcast: Are Brownies Better Than Botox? features Valerie Monroe, veteran journalist, beauty director of O Magazine for 16 years and author of one of my absolute favorite substacks, “How Not to F**k Up Your Face.”
I bombarded her with beauty questions from the practical to the profound, including a discussion of the biggest frauds perpetrated against women (and men) by the beauty industry. This is an episode not to miss. And by the end you’ll feel more beautiful inside and out.
Notes on the making of these here cookies:
I made my own pumpkin pie spice blend for this recipe. Of course you can use the pre-mixed stuff if that is easier. However, making your own is quite easy if (if!) you have all the spices—and it makes a big difference. The spice flavors are just more alive when you make your own.
And yes, cream of tartar is necessary to the recipe. It adds the distinctive snickerdoodle tang and helps leaven the cookie. You probably have some hiding in the back of your pantry. I think it comes as standard in all houses, you just don’t know it’s there.
Of course you could add chocolate chips to these. But you knew that.
My friends, I give you…
Pumpkin Spice Snickerdoodles
Yields: 4 dozen cookies
What You’ll Need:
2 1/4 cups (270 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice (if using commercial pumpkin pie spice, add 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger; if using a homemade blend there’s no need to add additional
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature, cut into pieces
3/4 cup (148.5 grams) granulated sugar
2/3 cup (142 grams) light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
1/2 cup (113.5 grams) canned pureed pumpkin
For the topping:
1/4 cup (49.5 grams) granulated sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice blend (see recipe below)
What You’ll Do:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and cream of tartar.
With a hand or stand mixer, beat together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl at least twice.
Add the egg and the vanilla and mix on medium speed until just blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
Add the pumpkin puree and mix on low speed until just combined.
Add the flour mixture and stir on low speed until the mixture is fully blended. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the beaters, then beat the mixture on medium-high for about 5 seconds.
Refrigerate the dough for one hour or until firm enough to roll into balls. If it’s too soft, it will end up all over your hands, it will be a big mess and you’ll get crabby.
When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the 1/4 cup (49.5 grams) of white sugar and 3 tablespoons of spice mix. Roll the dough into 1-inch balls, then roll those balls in the sugar-spice mixture and place two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly colored and just firm to the touch.
Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend
The recipe makes enough for this batch of cookies, plus a little leftover for your morning toast, although I recommend doubling the recipe so you always have it around. I am a bit fanatical about it these days and especially like it sprinkled over a bowl of yogurt and applesauce.
What You’ll Need:
1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
What You’ll Do:
Whisk all the spices together. Store in an airtight container.
I hope you enjoy these as much as we do. I don’t, however, expect you to love a bowl of applesauce, plain yogurt sprinkled with pumpkin pie spice as much as I do, but maybe you have your own random combinations of food you quietly revel in? Let me know in the comments!
This substack is a reader-supported publication. I cannot do it without you. If you’re able, paying for a subscription helps keep the snickers doodles and helps pay for the groceries necessary for recipe-testing and recipe development. Also, it supports me—a freelance writer. The pay scale for journalists and writers has not kept up with the cost of living. That’s why having a substack newsletter has become such a terrific venue for so many writers. Best of all, however, it puts me, Bosco, Calvin and Clyde in touch with our readers like never before. Thank you.
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I love reading your recipes and enjoy your realness and humor. Please keep the political sprinkles on the page!
Okay, back to the store for some of the ingredients as these sound spectacular and where I live the high 80s will finally give way later this week as fall is here. I also congratulate you on surviving the Merritt (not something I miss from my time in CT). And, even if some readers don't like your political comments it's your Substack so you can write whatever you like. I don't believe that you have to like everything about what a person says, writes or bakes. You simply have to be civil (channeling Joyce White Vance).