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Pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles are a fresh take on a classic cookie! Delightfully soft and filled with tangy cream cheese, these cookies will be sure to get a “WOW!” from your friends and family!
I love any recipe that I can add pumpkin to and these cookies are no exception! If you love pumpkin as much as I do, go ahead and try some of these Muffins, this Bread Pudding, and the most Perfect Pumpkin Bread! You will go crazy for them all!
Reasons These Cookies are the BEST
- A twist on a classic: A pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodle is a twist on your classic snickerdoodle and takes it to the next level. Filled with all of the same sweet cinnamon flavors, with the addition of a yummy cream cheese mixture in the middle, these cookies are something that you will love!
- Soft: I love a good soft cookie and these snickerdoodles are the best!
- They freeze well: Double the batch and freeze them for up to 3 months!
Soft Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles
This recipe is perfect for an after-school snack, a game day treat, or just bringing a treat to your neighbors. Whatever you do, I suggest making more than one batch. They are so good, and they will be eaten up in no time!
Ingredients You Need to Make Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles
This delicious ooey-gooey recipe is going to become a staple at your house. Because the base flavor is delicious cinnamon, once you add in some pumpkin and cream cheese, you are making the perfect fall treat! See the recipe card below for a list of exact ingredients.
- All-purpose flour: This combines your ingredients and helps thicken the dough.
- Baking powder: This helps the cookies to rise.
- Salt: This enhances the flavors of all of the ingredients.
- Cinnamon: You can’t have snickerdoodles without a delicious cinnamon taste.
- Nutmeg: Brings that delicious earthy flavor that we all know and love!
- Butter: It’s best to use unsalted butter that is at room temperature for these cookies.
- Sugar: Adds sweetness to the cookie dough.
- Brown sugar: This is the best type of sweetener, and the flavor can’t be beat.
- Pumpkin puree: Don’t confuse this with pumpkin pie filling!
- Egg: Use an egg that is at room temperature.
- Vanilla extract: This adds some flavor to the sweetness.
Filling Ingredients
- Cream cheese: Make sure to set your block out so that it is softened before you use it!
- Sugar: Sweetens up the tangy cream cheese.
- Vanilla extract: Adds some flavor to the sugar’s sweetness.
Cinnamon Sugar Coating
- Sugar: Adds sweetness to the spices!
- Cinnamon: Use ground cinnamon and mix it well with the other spices.
- Ginger: Ground ginger will work the best and add in an earthy flavor.
- Allspice: This is the best spice to bring out that fall taste!
Baking Tips
Since these are a bit different than your traditional snickerdoodles, I have come up with a few baking tips to help these turn out just perfectly for you! They are seriously SO good! I can’t wait for you to try them!
- Pumpkin puree: Sometimes, people think that pumpkin pie filling and pumpkin puree are the same thing… they are not! Pumpkin pie filling is mixed with spices and flavors, and you don’t want that for these cookies since you are adding those on your own. A can of pumpkin puree will be orange inside, and all that is listed on the ingredients will be “pumpkin puree.” So make sure that you are getting the right one!
- Chill: Before you ball up the dough and put it in the oven, it’s best (at least in this recipe) to chill your dough and cream cheese filling. This will help your cookies stay fluffy and not spread in the oven!
- Fresh ingredients: For the best results in your baking, make sure that all of your ingredients are fresh! This means that you should be replacing the baking ingredients in your pantry every 3-6 months. They start to lose their flavor and potency after that!
How to Make Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles
These homemade pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles are easy to make! In fact, bake up a few batches at once so that you have some for later! It will be so simple, and once you see how fast they get eaten, you’ll be glad that you did!
Prep
- Whisk dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside.
- Beat butter, eggs, and sugar: In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Blend and mix together: Blend in pumpkin puree, beat in egg, and then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients on low speed just until combined. Cover and chill the dough for an hour.
- Make the filling: To make the cream cheese filling, blend cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.
- Prep and baking sheets: Preheat oven to 350 and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices for the coating and set aside.
Bake
- Make cookies: To make the cookies, take a tablespoon of the cookie batter. Flatten it like a pancake and place a teaspoon of the cream cheese in the center.
- Add cream cheese mixture: Form another tablespoon of the cookie batter into a flat pancake shape and place on top of the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together, sealing in the cream cheese, and roll into a ball. Roll in the cinnamon sugar coating and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Flatten dough: Repeat until the dough is gone, and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy-bottomed glass or measuring cup.
- Bake and cool: Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy! These pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles are the best!
Storing Leftovers
If you have some pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles that didn’t get eaten all at once, here is how you can store them for later! That way, you can eat them all week long!
- Refrigerator: Because these cookies have cream cheese in them, don’t store them on your counter. Place your cooled cookies into an airtight container and leave them in your fridge for up to a week!
- Freezer: Store your cookies in a sealed, airtight container or freezer ziplock bag. Label the bag with the date, and then you can store them for up to 3 months! Just thaw them in the fridge before you want to eat them.
More Delicious Pumpkin Desserts to Try
If you loved these pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles, then it’s your lucky day! I have come up with a few more pumpkin desserts that I think that you will love as well! They are all amazing to add to your Autumn pumpkin recipes.
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Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 3¾ cups all-purpose flour
- 1½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¾ cup pumpkin puree
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Filling Ingredients:
- 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Cinnamon-sugar coating:
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- dash allspice
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a mixer with a paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.
- Blend in pumpkin puree, beat in egg, and then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients on low speed just until combined. Cover and chill the dough for an hour.
- Blend cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together to make the cream cheese filling. Chill for one hour.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices for the coating and set aside.
- To make the cookies, take a tablespoon of the cookie dough. Flatten it like a pancake and place a teaspoon of the cream cheese in the center. Form another tablespoon of the cookie batter into a flat pancake shape and place it on top of the cream cheese. Pinch the edges together, sealing in the cream cheese, and roll into a ball. Roll in the cinnamon sugar coating and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart.
- Repeat until the dough is gone and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy bottomed glass or measuring cup.
- Bake the cookies for 10-15 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Not a sweet cookie
Prep time is not 30 minutes, because the dough has to chill for an hour, so the total time is not 42 minutes… Very misleading! Also, the dough is very sticky and almost impossible to work with! I am disappointed 🙁 However, I have not yet tried the final product… So we will see if these cookies were worth all of the time and effort! Glad it worked out for you 🙂
Will I still be able to make these cookies if I just have a normal mixer and not a kitchenaid? Or should I add that to the ingredient list?
These look delish! I am not a novice to baking, but I think after reading all the comments about the stickiness, I might try making them as a filled bar cookie…? has anyone tried that?
Loving my final batch. Early on used the King Arthur tablespoon scoop (4 teaspoons/#40) for the dough with a teaspoon of filling and the cookies were huge. Only 4 fit on a dinner plate. And 15 minutes wasn’t enough cooking time. Ran out of filling. Needed 1/2 of another batch of filling to finish. Changed to the King Arthur teaspoon scoop (1 3/4 teaspoons/#100) for both the dough and the filling. Still baked them longer than 15 minutes until golden. My color is also pale. Might add food coloring in the future to the wet ingredients of the dough. Couldn’t get the rolling technique, but luckily, the filling stayed in the cookie boundary, though it’s often not limited to the middle. I refrigerated a few hours, then a day for the last batch. No trouble with the dough dusting my hands with flour and keeping the dough refrigerated between batches. It wasn’t gooey enough to grab much of the sugar coating, so sprinkled sugar mix over after flattened. Only change to ingredients I made: KAF White Whole Wheat flour and subbed 1/2 t of Fiori di Sicilia for 1/2 t of the vanilla in the filling. LOVE Fiori di Sicilia in cream cheese. I think the effort matched the outcome.
One thing confuses me about this recipe. “Pinch the edges together sealing in the cream cheese and roll into a ball.” Wouldn’t that mix all the filling with the dough?
No the cream cheese will still stay in the center. You just seal it up and gently roll it into a ball with your hands.
Just made these and they are the BOMB!!!! I put my dough in fridge over night and they were super easy to work with!! Thanks for this awesome recipe!!
Just wondering if I should make adjustments for high altitude (around 3800) ? It’s usually add or reduce water & flour when I make other cookies.
These are baking as I type and they smell amazing!!!! I’m not sure they’ll wait until cool enough before I devour them!!!!
If there’s no cream of tartar in the cookies, then, technically, they are not Snickerdoodles! Just sayin’!
You can always add it if you would like. 🙂
There is cream of tartar in baking powder, so it’s in there, just not separate.
The baking powder contains cream of tartar.
I made these today and they came out incredible! They look just like your pictures and taste better than I could have even imagined! Thank you for sharing this recipe. It’s going to be my new go-to for this fall season 🙂
These look fantastic for a great Autumn cookie. Question on the method for stuffing the cookie: I make nutella stuffed choc cookies and for that I scoop tablespoons of chilled nutella directly onto parchment paper and then let them sit in the freezer overnight. Then the next day when I make the dough I grab the frozen nutella balls and roll them into about 1/4 cup of dough, each. Do you think this method would work well with these cookies? I’ve never tried to freeze dollops of cream cheese before, but it seems like it would be easier this way than pancaking to halves together and then trying to seal them? Curious if you think this would work, too!
Yes that would work and be amazing! I have heard of that method as well. Let me know if you try it and if it turns out for you! 🙂
I’m making your cookies today and will try the cream cheese ball like J says! I hope it works after reading everyone’s comments I am now very aware they will be sticky! I also love how you put the recipe and directions in order, I’m a greenhorn when it comes to the kitchen but I love trying. Your ingredence matched the directions and let me tell ya, it is awesome when trying to follow what’s next! Thanks for the help and I can’t wait to taste them and to see if Hubby loves them.
Lea
I attempted to make these and my dough came out very sticky.. then when baked, the color was off from yours. did i do something wrong?
These were awesome! Tender, soft, not dry, with some cheesecake surprise in the middle. New favorite! (Made them twice in 1.5 weeks).
Just finished making these cookies and had one with my pumpkin spice coffee. Very tasty … I made the dough and cream cheese mixture last night. Didn’t have any problems with stickiness until the last few, and then I just dusted my hands with powder sugar. By second batch I had it down pat. I flattened the first one and then kind of folded a bit, scooped a generous amount of filling. The topping cookie I flattened and it was a bit thinner than bottom, placed that on top of the semi- folded bottom one and it was very easy to seal. Rolled around the cookie in my hand on edge to seal. Placed in sugar and kind of flattened a bit more in sugar. Will make again for sure.
I found your Cheesecake Snickerdoodle recipe a while back and just now tried them. They are amazing! We loved them so much we shared your wonderful recipe on our website at http://www.wickedwomenbooksandmore.com/
We look forward to trying and sharing more of your recipes!