‘Brown Butter’ Vegan Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
These pillowy soft ‘brown butter’ pumpkin snickerdoodle are a dream- and you’ll never believe they’re entirely dairy free and made without eggs (so vegan!). With chewy edges and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth middle, these pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies have the perfect tang to sweetness ratio- and are downright irresistible after one bite, so you’ve been warned!
The cookie recipe of autumn:
If there’s anything that screams autumn and holiday festivities in a bite, it’s the snickerdoodle.
Add in some pumpkin, pumpkin spice, and some brown butter, and you have the most iconic cookie of fall.
And are you ready for our little twist? You actually don’t need any eggs nor dairy to make these ‘brown butter’ pumpkin snickerdoodles. Yep, they’re entirely vegan, yet you’d be none the wiser after one bite.
These pumpkin snickerdoodles everything that a snickerdoodle stands for: chewy, soft texture with a slight tang and wonderfully warm spices mixed with sweet sugar throughout. Plus the addition of the nutty browned vegan butter and wonderfully aromatic pumpkin spices just takes these cookies to a whole new level.
They’re sure to be on your must bake cookie list for the holiday season, stacking right up next to classics like sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and your go-to chocolate chip cookie recipe.
What makes a snickerdoodle a snickerdoodle?
Cream of tartar.
And yes, it is actually vegan! Cream of tartar is a by product of the wine making process, and comes from the fermentation process of grapes and bacteria.
This is what makes a snickerdoodle so iconically tangy yet sweet (just see my classic snickerdoodles and snickerdoodle blondies!).
If you don’t have cream of tartar, unfortunately there really isn’t a substitute that will provide that same level of “tang” that snickerdoodle cookies are known for.
You can, however, get cream of tartar in nearly all grocery stores!
The key to perfect chewy pumpkin snickerdoodles that spread just right:
Chilling the dough.
I know, I know, the dough is so quick and easy to make (15 minutes tops), and then you have to wait a full hour before you can bake them?! Trust me, the results you’ll get are worth it.
There are some cookie recipes in which chilling is optional, and there are others in which it is a necessity.
This brown butter pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie recipe happens to be the latter. Because of the high liquid content, you want the butter to be firmed up within the cookie. This is so that when it bakes, it just heats enough, allowing the learning agents and all the other ingredients to do their part.
Be careful of which pumpkin puree you use:
Different brands of pumpkin puree will affect this recipe differently, as not all pumpkin puree is equal.
Some cans have more water content than others (I like Farmer’s Market Organic Pumpkin Puree, whereas the Whole Foods 365 brand contains way less water). This will impact your cookies’ ability to spread.
Now this is not just a problem that would occur in a vegan cookie recipe- it would also occur if this recipe contained eggs. There will always be slight variations to the ingredients we use from different brands.
If you notice your pumpkin puree seems thicker and your cookie dough a little harder to come together, you can add a tablespoon of dairy free milk to help the mixture. This will help add back some of that liquid if your pumpkin puree is leaning towards more dry than smooth and creamy.
You can, of course, use your own homemade pumpkin puree as well, which in my experience, has always been super creamy!
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‘Brown Butter’ Vegan Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 13
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 15 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
These pillowy soft ‘brown butter’ pumpkin snickerdoodles are a dream- and you’ll never believe they’re entirely dairy free and made without eggs (so vegan!). With chewy edges and a soft, melt-in-your-mouth middle, these pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies have the perfect tang to sweetness ratio- and are downright irresistible after one bite, so you’ve been warned!
Ingredients
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies:
- 2/3 cup (150 g) vegan unsalted butter, room temperature*
- 3/4 cup (150 g) light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (80 g) pumpkin purée
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 3/4 cup (220 g) all-purpose flour or gluten-free 1:1 baking flour
Sugar Coating:
- 1/4 cup (50 g) granulated sugar
- 2 tsp pumpkin spice blend
Instructions
- Prep: Measure out all ingredients. Read through instructions thoroughly before beginning.
- Brown the vegan butter: In a medium saucepan, heat the vegan butter on medium heat until it melts. It will start to bubble and darken. Continue stirring until the flecks turn a light brown color, being careful for the butter to not overflow from bubbling. It should weigh about 130 g at this point.
- Make the cookie dough: Pour the vegan browned butter into a medium mixing bowl, followed by the light brown sugar, sugar, pumpkin puree, and vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. Then add in the cream of tartar, pumpkin pie spice blend, baking soda, and sea salt. Whisk again until fully combined. Finally, add in the flour, and use a silicone spatula to fold the flour into the wet ingredients just until combined.
- Chill: Cover the cookie dough bowl and place into the fridge to chill for 30 minutes to 1 hour. Your dough should be firm and cold but malleable (and able to be rolled into a cookie dough ball!).
- While the cookie dough is chilling: Preheat the oven to 350F, and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Whisk together the sugar and pumpkin pie spice blend in a small bowl, and set aside.
- Roll the cookie dough balls and coat them: Take a medium cookie scoop (about 1.5 tbsp), and scoop a cookie dough ball. Roll it between you palms to smooth the ball, then roll it in the sugar coating until evenly coated. Place the cookie dough ball onto the baking sheet, and repeat for the remaining dough, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. You should yield.
- Bake: Place the cookie sheets into the oven to bake (you can bake one on the middle rack and one just below on the lower rack, or wait until the middle rack frees up after the first round), and bake for 11-13 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden, and the cookies have slightly puffed up and spread. Remove from the oven to let cool for 5-10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring them to a cooling rack.
- Serve and enjoy! Serve the cookies warm or store them in an airtight container and freeze for up to 3 months.
Notes
Gluten free: I like King Arthur measure for measure baking flour here. Not all gluten-free blends are created the same, so be cautious, as I cannot test them all and verify if it will work.
Vegan butter: Miyoko’s browns the best followed by Plant Crock. I’m not the biggest fan of Earth Balance butter when browned- it tastes a bit processed and the cookies are too oily.
These are sooo yummy! 10/10 cookie. Honestly something about them doesn’t read pumpkin to me. I increased the spice a smidge because I like extra spicy but these are so delicious I am tempted to run to the store for some vanilla nadamoo to make some fall cookie ice cream sandwiches. I feel like this recipe has the perfect chew and crunch for them 😍
How can I make these with regular melted vegan butter and not browned? Just the same amount of butter that the recipe calls for but don’t brown it? Thanks!
So you’ll need about 130 g or 9 tbsp of butter!
These were such a huge hit, I ended up making three batches in a week because friends and family kept asking for more. I made one batch with 360 vegan butter and the other two with earth balance to test the difference. The earth balance ones were more popular despite the butter not browning as well, but they seem to produce a more moist cookie.