Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies with a Soft Middle

Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies with a Soft Middle keeps the shopping list focused on unsalted butter, dark brown sugar, and granulated sugar. It serves 30 cookies.

Count on 25 minutes of prep, 10 minutes of cooking, 1 hour of resting, about 1 hour from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

Cookie Dough

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ½ cup dark brown sugar
• ¼ cup granulated sugar
• 2 egg yolks
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ cup pumpkin puree
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon pumpkin spice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour

Spiced Sugar

• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon pumpkin spice

How the cooking goes

Brown the butter

1. Warm butter in saucepan over a moderate flame. Once the butter has fully melted, lower the heat to medium low and continue to cook, stirring often. The butter will clarify, and then the solids will begin to brown.
2. Remove browned butter once dark golden and smelling of toasted hazelnuts. Pour into a clean bowl and allow to cool to between 90°F–93°F.

Make & bake the cookies

1. Beat dry ingredients (flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, pumpkin spice, cinnamon, salt) in a separate bowl.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the browned butter with sugars. Whisk in yolks, followed by vanilla and pumpkin puree.
3. Stir in the dry ingredients with a stiff silicone spatula or wooden spoon. You do not recommend using a whisk.
4. Portion dough using a rounded tablespoon or a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop onto a sheet pan lined with parchment. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before baking.
5. Warm the oven to 325°F convection (with the fan) or 350°F conventional (no fan). Line 2 sheet pans with baking paper.
6. Stir sugar topping by whisking or stirring granulated sugar and pumpkin spice in a small mixing bowl.
7. Roll the chilled dough into balls and drop in the pumpkin spice sugar mixture. it helps to do 3 at a time. Roll the dough to coat by swirling the bowl, and then place it about 2 inches apart on a prepared sheet pan.
8. Oven-bake cookies in the preheated oven for 5 minutes, rotate, and continue baking for 5 minutes. They puff and crack in the center, but they aren’t set. Resist the temptation to overbake.
9. Allow it to cool until it is no longer warm on a wire rack. The centers should sink after cooling.

After it comes off the heat

Cool the sheet on a rack before the pieces are stacked. A covered tin keeps them for a few days.

If you want another plate from Cookies, open Speculoos Rum Balls after Supper and Raspberry Ribbon Cookies Baked Until the Edges Set.