Soft & Chewy Brown Butter Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodles are soft and chewy (not cakey), perfectly spiced, and made with canned pumpkin puree for ease. Recipe yields 14 cookies.
Servings: 14 cookies
Calories: 164kcal
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 113 g unsalted butter *see Notes*
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 55 g light brown sugar
- 60 g pumpkin puree *see Notes*
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 125 g all-purpose flour
- 1¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
For the Rolling Mixture:
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 1¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
Instructions
- Cube the butter and place it in a light-colored skillet. Melt the butter over medium heat, stirring constantly. Once melted, the butter will start to foam. Keep stirring. After 5-8 minutes, the butter will begin browning; you'll notice lightly browned specks begin to form at the bottom of the pan, and you'll start to smell a nutty aroma. Once browned, immediately remove from the heat, and pour into a heatproof bowl. You should have about 7 tablespoons (98 grams) of brown butter.
- Add the granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla to the brown butter. Using a whisk, whisk together until combined, about 1 minute.
- Add the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin spice, baking soda, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt into the wet ingredients and stir using a silicon spatula until everything is combined. The dough will be thick and a little greasy.
- Using a medium (1½-tablespoon) spring-loaded cookie scoop, scoop the dough into balls and place dough balls on a lined baking sheet, loosely cover with plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator to chill for 15-20 minutes.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and make the rolling mixture. Combine the sugar, cinnamon, and pumpkin spice in a small bowl. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, then set it aside.
- Roll each dough ball in the spiced sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned on the sides. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Once cool enough to handle, dip the baked cookies in the remaining spiced sugar mixture.
Notes
Butter: The process of browning butter cooks off moisture from the butter, so it reduces in quantity. I have accounted for this in the recipe, so you will see ½ cup (113g) of butter is called for in the recipe card, but only 7 tablespoons (98g) of brown butter is used in the cookie dough. This is not an error - I just accounted for moisture loss when calculating the initial quantity!
Pumpkin: Pumpkin puree is full of moisture (approximately 90% water by mass), which is what helps make pumpkin bread so moist! But for cookies, excessive moisture = cakey texture. To combat this, squeeze as much of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree as you can before adding it to the cookie dough. Place the puree on top of a few paper towels, then squeeze out the liquid over the sink. This will help produce a more traditional chewy/dense cookie, as pictured. Measure ¼ cup (60 grams) AFTER the pumpkin has been squeezed.
Nutrition
Serving: 1 cookie | Calories: 164kcal | Carbohydrates: 26g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.3g | Cholesterol: 17mg | Sodium: 83mg | Potassium: 44mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 18g | Vitamin A: 870IU | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 15mg | Iron: 1mg
