One of the things I love about fall is the plethora of pumpkin baked goods.  I make Pumpkin/Cream Cheese Bars.  I make a Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese & Toffee Filling for Thanksgiving.  I’ve made Pumpkin Cheesecake and Pumpkin Creme Brulee. I had a Pumpkin Bread Pudding in a restaurant recently that was out of this world.  So when my friend Leah Singer posted (or rather “re-pinned”) a recipe for Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, I couldn’t wait to make them!  I mean, who doesn’t love Snickerdoodles?  I printed the recipe and it was sitting on my kitchen counter.  Then I got really busy at work.  Then I got the mother of all colds.  Then the culmination of the really busy at work took place with a luncheon event for 200 that I had been planning for six months.  Oh, and did I mention I had the mother of all colds?  Bad timing.  The event was a success, regardless of how bad I was feeling…it’s amazing what sheer adrenaline can do.

I might interject at this point that I had been feeling so lousy that I really wasn’t doing much cooking.  And for me, the worst part about being sick is not feeling like cooking!  Cooking and baking are my stress relief, my therapy.  So I took a couple of days off and finally last weekend got back in the kitchen and baked the Pumpkin Snickerdoodles.  They are amazingly delicious (and, wow, did the house smell heavenly while they were baking!).  I love the addition of allspice in the sugar/cinnamon mixture for rolling the cookies in.  I’ve got to be honest though, they were a little “cake-y” for me.  I like a harder, more crumbly cookie, but the flavor made up for it.  I took them to work and shared them with my coworkers and everyone loved them.  And enough of them asked for the recipe, that I’m going to share.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

INGREDIENTS

For the cookies:

3¾ cups all-purpose flour

1½ tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

½ cup light brown sugar

¾ cup pumpkin puree

1 large egg

2 tsp. vanilla extract

For the coating:

½ cup granulated sugar

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. ground ginger

Dash of allspice

DIRECTIONS:

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk to blend and set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat together the butter and sugars on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2-3 minutes. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the egg and vanilla until incorporated. With the mixer on low speed add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl and mix to blend. Scoop the dough (about 2½ tablespoons) and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill the sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy-bottomed drinking glass in water, then in the sugar-spice mixture, and use the bottom to flatten the dough balls slightly. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed.

Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes, or until just set and baked through. Let cool on the baking sheets about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat with the remaining dough. Store in an airtight container.  And share with your coworkers.  They’ll love you for it.