Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies with White Chocolate Chips
Thick, chewy pumpkin snickerdoodles made with nutty brown butter and creamy white chocolate, rolled in cinnamon sugar. The pumpkin is cooked down in the pan with the butter rather than blotted, which removes the moisture that turns pumpkin cookies cakey. No eggs and no mixer needed.
Ingredients
Pumpkin Cookie Dough
White Chocolate
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
Instructions
Brown the Butter
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Place the butter in a light-colored skillet or wide saucepan over medium heat. Once it melts it will foam and crackle as the water cooks away, so stir or swirl the pan regularly. After 4 to 6 minutes the milk solids on the bottom will turn golden brown and the butter will smell warm and nutty. This is a small amount of butter in a wide pan, so it browns quickly. Watch it closely toward the end.
Cook Down the Pumpkin and Spices
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Lower the heat to medium-low, then add the pumpkin puree, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves to the pan. Stand back for a moment, as the puree will hiss and spit when it meets the hot butter. Stir everything together and let it simmer, stirring often and scraping the base of the pan so nothing catches.
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Over 5 to 9 minutes the mixture will darken from bright orange to a deeper rust color and thicken into a fragrant paste. Go by what you see rather than the clock, as a wide pan works much faster than a narrow one. It is ready when dragging your spoon across the bottom leaves a clear trail for a second before it fills back in. Take it off the heat at that point, as the browned milk solids underneath will scorch once the moisture has gone.
Cool the Mixture
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Scrape everything from the pan into a large heatproof mixing bowl and let it cool for about 20 minutes, stirring once or twice. This step matters here, because white chocolate seizes and streaks if it meets anything still hot. The bowl should feel comfortably warm against the back of your hand, no more.
Whisk in the Sugars and Vanilla
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Add the brown sugar and granulated sugar to the bowl and whisk firmly for about 1 minute, until the mixture is thick and glossy. Whisk in the vanilla. There are no eggs in this dough, so the base will look darker and denser than a usual cookie mixture. This is exactly right.
Add the Dry Ingredients
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In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture and fold with a rubber spatula just until no dry streaks remain. Try not to work the dough once the flour is in, as overmixing makes the cookies tough rather than tender.
Fold in the White Chocolate
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Add the white chocolate chips and fold gently until they are spread evenly through the dough. The dough will feel soft and slightly tacky at this stage, which is normal. Resist the urge to add extra flour.
Chill the Dough
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Cover the bowl and refrigerate for about 45 minutes. Chilling lets the butter firm back up and gives the flour time to take up moisture from the pumpkin. Afterwards the dough should still feel soft but hold together well enough to scoop and roll cleanly.
Heat the Oven and Mix the Coating
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Heat the oven to 350°F and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small shallow bowl, stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon until evenly combined, then set it beside your work area.
Shape and Coat the Cookies
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Scoop about 2 tablespoons of chilled dough per cookie and roll each into a smooth ball. Roll every ball generously through the cinnamon sugar, then arrange them about 3 inches apart on the prepared sheets. Because the pumpkin was cooked down rather than blotted, this dough spreads on its own and does not need flattening first.
Bake Until the Edges Are Set
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Bake 1 sheet at a time for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges look set and lightly golden but the centers are still soft and slightly underdone. Take them out at that point rather than waiting for the middles to look fully baked, as they carry on setting on the hot sheet. If you would like a bakery-style finish, press a few extra white chocolate chips into the tops while the cookies are still warm.
Cool the Cookies
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Leave the cookies on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes before moving them to a wire rack with a thin spatula. They are very soft straight from the oven and firm up as they cool. Give them as much cooling time as you can manage, as the centers settle into a proper chew and the white chocolate needs time to set.
Note
Use plain canned pumpkin puree rather than pumpkin pie filling, which is already sweetened and spiced.
The reduction time varies with pan width, so rely on the spoon trail rather than the clock. Once the water has cooked off the pan heats quickly, so pull it from the heat as soon as the trail holds.
The salt is higher than a standard cookie recipe on purpose. Brown butter, white chocolate, and pumpkin all sit in the same sweet register, and without it the cookies taste flat.
Regular white chocolate chips hold their shape best in the oven. Chopped white chocolate works but melts into the dough more unevenly.
If the chips streak or look grainy in the dough, the pan mixture was still too warm when they went in. Let it cool longer next time.
If the cookies bake up puffy and cakey, the pumpkin needed longer in the pan. If they spread thin, the dough was too warm and needs a longer chill.
Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days. Refrigeration is not necessary and makes them firmer. A slice of sandwich bread in the container keeps them soft.
Baked cookies freeze for up to 2 months. Unbaked dough keeps in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, and portioned dough balls freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight, let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes, then roll in the cinnamon sugar and bake as directed.
