Pumpkin Gingerdoodle Cookies

One of the first food blogs I ever started following was Peabody's blog, Culinary Concoctions by Peabody.  Everything she makes looks amazing - I truly wish I was one of her friends so I could have the pleasure of eating all of it ;) So, when I went in search of recipes to try this holiday season, I knew that I could surely find something wonderful to make from there.

And I was right.  After scrolling through a few posts, I stumbled upon these pumpkin gingerdoodle cookies.  Part pumpkin snickerdoodle and part gingersnap cookie, these cookies combine some of everyone's favorite holiday flavors.  My husband walked into the kitchen and saw me pulling these out of the oven and asked, "Can I have a snickerdoodle?" I informed him they weren't snickerdoodles but pumpkin gingerdoodles and he was happy to try them.  He quickly proclaimed, "These are way better than regular snickerdoodles."

I only had two issues with these cookies.  The first issue was really a non-issue: I had way more pumpkin snickerdoodle dough than gingersnap dough.  So in the end, I made some plain pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies as well (all were eagerly consumed regardless). 

The second issue was in the consistency of the cookies.  The pumpkin snickerdoodle dough puffed up into a wonderful moist, slightly cakey cookie.  The gingersnap dough, on the other hand, puffed up but deflated after I pulled it out of the oven.  So, my cookies looked lopsided when I placed the cookie doughs side by side.  Next I tried a batch with the pumpkin snickerdoodle dough on the bottom and the gingersnap dough on top.  Those turned out okay, but they weren't very aesthetically pleasing.  So finally I made a batch with the gingersnap dough on the bottom and the pumpkin snickerdoodle dough on top and those cookies turned out to the look the best.  I'm not sure how Peabody got her cookies to look the way that she did, but the cookies you see in the photo at the top of this blog post were the best that I could do. 

Regardless of how these cookies look, they are amazing.  We couldn't stop eating them in our household and almost didn't have enough to give out to family and friends because we wanted them all to ourselves! So, if you're going to only try one new recipe out this holiday season, I encourage you to make it this one - I promise you won't regret it!

Pumpkin Gingerdoodles
from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody


Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Dough

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
¾ cup pumpkin puree
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt

for rolling the cookies in: (I had to double this)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Mix 1 1/2 cups sugar, the butter, pumpkin, and eggs in a stand mixer with paddle attachment.  (It will appear curdled, but don't worry it will all come together in the next step.)

Add in flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and mix on low until fully combined. Set aside.

Gingersnap Dough

3/4 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon ginger

Combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and set aside for rolling dough in.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add molasses and egg and continue beating. Add flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger and mix until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease baking sheets with no-stick cooking spray and set aside.

(I found that it's best to refrigerate both cookie doughs for at least one hour before assembly and baking.)

Roll a small amount of gingersnap dough into a ball and a small amount of snickerdoodle dough and place them together and gently roll or squeeze together.

Roll in cinnamon sugar.

Place on baking sheets and bake for 9-11 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes before moving to cooling racks.