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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!

A stack of 5 pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodle's. The top one has a bite out of it and you can see the filling.

Ooey-Gooey and Soft Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

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, these cookies are something that you will love! Not only do these pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles taste amazing, all soft and chewy, but the smell! It is incredible, and it makes me ready to welcome fall.

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!

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

  1. Whisk dry ingredients: In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Make the filling: To make the cream cheese filling, blend cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla together. Chill for an hour.
  5. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Flatten dough: Repeat until the dough is gone, and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy-bottomed glass or measuring cup.
  4. 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!
A process shot of pumpkin snickerdoodle dough flattened, each with a dollop of filling on top.

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!
Pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles on a cooling rack.

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.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake Snickerdoodles

4.07 from 16 votes
By: Alyssa Rivers
Pumpkiin 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! 
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Chill: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Servings: 24 Cookies

Ingredients 

Filling Ingredients:

Cinnamon-sugar coating:

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

Originally Posted on September 26, 2013
Updated on August 28, 2023

Nutrition

Calories: 254kcalCarbohydrates: 36gProtein: 3gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 7gCholesterol: 38mgSodium: 76mgPotassium: 92mgFiber: 1gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 1565IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 38mgIron: 1mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Tried this recipe?Mention @alyssa_therecipecritic or tag #therecipecritic!

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About Alyssa Rivers

Alyssa Rivers is the author of 'The Tried and True Cookbook', a professional food photographer and experienced recipe-developer. Having a passion for cooking, her tried and true recipes have been featured on Good Morning America, Today Food, Buzzfeed and more.

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297 Comments

  1. These were great but you really should add the inactive time to the total time. I started this not realizing the time to chill since it wasn’t included.

  2. Hi ladies! I’ve tried this and found that the filling does blend into the cookie, but I solved this problem!! I followed the recipe except I didn’t put filling in it! I also made sure to press them very thin on the baking sheet. Took care of the “cake like” texture!! I baked them and then when they cooled , I frosted them with a cream cheese frosting!!!! Worked out great!! Still makes a nice fall cookie with a snickerdoodle flair!!

  3. I followed the captioned instructions for the pumpkin snickerdoodles stuffed with cream cheese-

    “Make dough”, so I paused the video and went to work.

    I got home and restarted the video. “Chill 1 hour”, so I hit pause and kicked back.

    I didn’t restart the video because I was hungry before I went to work, was hungrier now, and this recipe seems to be going nowhere fast!

    1. If you follow the instructions and ingredients it should work great! There is a video in the post if you need further help on how they are made.

  4. Made these last week and they were a hit! My husband, who initially said they were “too dense” for his taste, couldn’t stay away from them. I may have overmixed the dough a bit but they were a hit and everyone loved them! Thanks for the great recipe!

    1. YAY!! That is awesome and a huge success! Love when the husband is on board! Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO

  5. I’m excited to try these ! I just got done prepping them but I did not realize it was going to take an hour to chill in the fridge . I usually read through recipes before I make them but I was in a hurry and only had an hour . I was planning on sending some with my husband to work since it’s the last day for thanksgiving break . I just read the prep time and starting baking . Very sad that he will not get to take these for everyone at work . The prep time needs to be updated.

  6. Trying to wrote this without the letter I️ bare with me.

    Been makin these since the recipe was first posted. It’s amazing but the dough has always been too sticky. This time, the filling was made first and portioned into the teaspoon balls and frozen. When it was time to make the cookies, dough was scooped with a cookie scoop, the frozen filling ball was pressed into the still scooped dough, smoothed over and dropped into the sugar mix. It was absolutely perfect.

  7. The cookies are much easier to roll if you work in small batches and keep the rest cold in the fridge. They’re kind of like making a perogi and then rolling into a snickerdoodle. I found the video much more helpful than the directions.

  8. My new favorite cookie! I refrigerated the dough for three hours (just because I had time) and froze little balls of the cream cheese mixture as per another review. I just wrapped the dough around the cream cheese center, rolled in the palm of my hand and in the sugar as directed. Fabulous! I did not have the sticky dough problem people are talking about. The center was creamy and gooey. I already want to make them again.

    1. WOW!! I love that idea! I will have to try that next time I make these. They never last long enough for me to try and freeze them. lol. Thanks so much for sharing! XOXO

  9. The pumpkin cheesecake snicker doodle cookies looked and sounded amazing. BUT….the dough was EXTREMELY sticky and unworkable. I made a dozen cookies and then decided I would take the remaining ingredients and make bars instead (like brownies). I divided the remaining dough in half. I pressed half of the dough onto parchment paper in a 9×9 pan….topped it with the cream cheese mixture….and then topped that with the remainder of the dough. I baked it at 350 for 50 minutes. AWESOME !!!!

    1. I am bummed they were sticky and didn’t turn out perfectly for you! I do LOVE your idea about brownie like dough. That sounds delicious! I will have to try that next time! Thanks for sharing! XOXO

    2. Yes….the bars turned out really good. I just don’t understand why the dough was SO STICKY ! I chilled the dough for two hours and added a little bit more of flour….and then a little bit more. Still sticky !!!! I would love to taste your cookies !

  10. Ok, so I made the Pumpkin Cheesecake Snikerdoodles last weekend and they are way more time consuming to make than I thought. The pumpkin dough is very sticky even after being chilled so it sticks to your hands and the surface you are using to build the cookies. I ended up using a mini ice cream scooper to get the dough. Also, I tried to end up with soft cream in the center (like the video) but what I got was cooked cream filling or under cooked cookies.

    All that being said, they tasted good but not sure they are worth the work. Oh and by storing them in tupperware, the cookies got really soft.

  11. My dough was super wet even after chilling so I added some flour to roll them. Recipe says to use a tablespoon of dough, teaspoon of filling, and then another tablespoon of dough. This made HUGE cookies that took forever to bake. When I rewatched the video it looks like all she used is a tablespoon of dough and a teaspoon of filling. I may try that next time or I may just make the dough and frost them with the filling after they come out of the oven.

  12. I made the dough and put the stuff in the fridge and then started reading comments. I was instantly dreading having chosen this recipe BUT it turns out, there was no sticky horrible mess upon assembling them. I followed all the directions exactly till it came to putting them together. The directions differed from the VIDEO I watched and I liked the easy no-fuss method in the video so I did it that way and BAM. AWESOMENESS. This recipe turned out to be great!