Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies are a must-try this fall season! They are full of your favorite fall flavors- the best take on classic cookies. They are incredibly delicious and soft, having a tangy, creamy cheesecake filling- not to forget the pumpkin spice!

Jump to:

• 🌟 Why this is the best recipe
• 📝 Ingredient notes
• 👩‍🍳 How to Make This Recipe
• 🥣 Equipment notes
• 🎓 Expert tips
• ❓Recipe FAQs
• 🍪 More Cookie recipes
• 🎃 More Pumpkin recipes
• Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Cheesecake Cookies

🌟 Why this is the best recipe

1. Filled with Flavors- These pumpkin cookies with cream cheese filling are the perfect dessert to satisfy your cravings this fall. The rich pumpkin spice flavor paired with the tanginess of cream cheese makes every bite feel absolutely divine.
2. Chewy Texture- My recipe for snickerdoodles pumpkin cheesecake cookies contains steps that ensure bakers of every level can achieve the perfect gooey texture. Quickly letting you know the secret- rest your cookie dough before baking, do not overbake, and make sure to use the right proportion of wet and dry ingredients.
3. Gooey Cream Cheese Center- You will love the gooey cream cheese center you will get by following my recipe.
4. Easy to Make- These are hands down super easy pumpkin cheesecake cookies! The recipe ingredients will provide a balanced baking experience without surprises! My pumpkin snickerdoodles with cream cheese filling require minimal effort and the steps are only here to help you!
5. Detailed Instructions- Do you struggle with the following instruction and always end up messing up the steps and ingredients somehow? That will not be an issue when using my easy-to-follow pumpkin cheesecake cookies recipe. Your baking experience will be smooth, stress-free, and fun!

📝 Ingredient notes

For the snickerdoodle pumpkin cheesecake cookies

1. Unsalted Butter: Using unsalted butter is the best; it allows you to control the quantity of salt in your recipe. As with all my bakes, I am using European-style unsalted butter with 82% fat content (or try my homemade butter recipe). You want to use it at room temperature, so you can comfortably mix it with other ingredients.
2. Sugar: I am using a combination of white and brown sugar for this recipe.
3. Pumpkin Puree: Use your favorite canned pumpkin puree, but homemade pumpkin puree never disappoints, which is why I like making my own. The puree recipe is simple- roast and blend the pumpkin. Remember that this recipe will need a thick pumpkin puree, so be careful about the consistency. Check out my recipe to make pumpkin puree of the right consistency.
4. Flour: All-purpose flour should work fine for this pumpkin cheesecake snickerdoodles cookies recipe.
5. Salt: Salt is an essential ingredient in this dessert recipe. It helps balance the sweetness while enhancing the taste of other ingredients.
6. Baking Soda: Baking soda helps make the cookies tender, causing them to puff up slightly. While it can add to the chewy texture, using too much can mess with it.
7. Pumpkin Spice: I like to make my own pumpkin spice using my quick and easy recipe. Learn how to make your own pumpkin spice. Alternatively, you can add a teaspoon of vanilla as well to the cookie dough, but the hero is really the pumpkin spice here.

For the filling

1. Powdered Sugar: You want to slit the powdered sugar to remove clumps if you want a smooth consistency. If powdered sugar is not readily available, learn how to make powdered sugar with my easy baking guide
2. Cream Cheese: The cream cheese filling is the star of this recipe. You can pick your favorite cream cheese to make these pumpkin cheesecake cookies. However, I prefer full-fat cream cheese eg. Philadephia because it ensures a rich and creamy texture. Do you want to know a secret tip? Use refrigerated cream cheese to make this recipe.

Cinnamon sugar coating

1. Unsalted Butter: Again, use unsalted butter for the coating to control the salt amount.
2. Granulated Sugar: Granulated sugar helps add to the texture and taste.
3. Pumpkin Spice or Cinnamon Powder: I love to use pumpkin spice, but if you think it will be too much, you can opt for ground cinnamon powder.

🛒 You’ll find detailed measurements for all Ingredients in the printable version of the Recipe Card at the bottom of this post

👩‍🍳 How to Make This Recipe

1. How to make the cream cheese filling for the cookies

It is best to start your recipe by making the cream cheese filling, as you need to freeze it. Ticking it off the list first helps give it the needed freezing time. But why do you need frozen cream cheese filling? Well, you cannot fill the cookie dough with the filling if it is melted.

1. Add powdered sugar to your cream cheese and whip them for a few minutes.
2. Spoon or Pipe twelve balls (make sure they are equal in size) on parchment paper or a silicone baking mat
3. Use gentle pressure to flatten the top of the balls. The cream cheese filling should look like a flat circle.
4. Freeze the cream cheese discs for 30-60 minutes

Freezing the filling may seem like an additional step. However, attempting to fill the cookies when the filling is not entirely frozen can lead to a huge mess.

💡 Top Tip: Be mindful when deciding the size of your cream cheese discs. You will need to increase the cookie size if you make larger fillings. Therefore, use a suitable amount and ensure all portions are equal.

2. Step-by-step process of making pumpkin cookies

While the cream cheese filling is in the freezer, you can start making the pumpkin cookie dough. It is an easy and quick process. However, you need to follow the essential steps properly to ensure the right texture.

1. Use an electric hand mixer to whip sugar and room-temperature butter for a few minutes
2. Once the ingredients are nicely mixed, fold in the pumpkin puree
3. Sift your dry ingredients together, including flour, salt, baking soda, and pumpkin spice
4. Now, add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients (butter and sugar mixture)
5. Use a rubber spatula to fold the wet and dry ingredients until combined (avoid over-mixing)
6. Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes

The right quantity of ingredients and the correct techniques can make all the difference to the texture and taste of your snickerdoodle pumpkin cheesecake cookies. Therefore, be careful when following the cookie dough-making instructions to ensure your cookies come out perfectly.

💡 Top Tip: Let the pumpkin cookie dough rest in the fridge for full 30 minutes to make handling easier. The chilled dough does not stick to the hands during the assembling process.

3. Assemble the cream cheese-filled pumpkin cookies

You will need to wait 30 minutes before removing the cookie dough and cream cheese filling discs from the fridge. Then, you can move on to assembling the cookies and filling them.

1. Lay down parchment paper on two baking sheets
2. Divide the chilled cookie dough into twenty-four equal portions (use a digital scale to get the right proportions)
3. Place one of the cookie dough portions onto the prepared baking sheet
4. Use gentle pressure to flatten the top
5. Make sure that the cookie dough's diameter is larger than the diameter of the frozen cream cheese filling
6. Take a frozen cream filling disc and place it on top of the cookie dough
7. Then, take another portion of the cookie dough and place it on top of the filling
8. Use gentle but firm pressure to seal the frozen cream cheese filling with the bottom cookie dough
9. Repeat the same process with the rest of the cookie dough portions and cream cheese filling discs (you should have twelve stuffed pumpkin snickerdoodles)
10. Transfer the cookie dough to the fridge to rest for an hour (or chill it in the freezer for 20 minutes)

Assembling the cookies can feel like a challenging task at first. However, you will get into practice after successfully assembling a few of them. Once you get the hang of it, the process becomes much quicker and smoother.

The goal is to seal the cream cheese filling discs in the cookie dough balls. Not to forget, you do not want to make the dough too warm with the heat of your fingers. Try and aim for soft filling and lovely cookie dough.

💡 Top Tip: You want to ensure you are using completely frozen cream cheese filling discs. It is best to take out one disc from the freezer at a time. Remove the next cream cheese filling disc from the freezer only when you are done assembling the previous cookie.

4. Why chill the pumpkin cream cheese cookies before baking

Many people skip letting the cookie dough rest in the freezer before assembling and baking the cookies. While it may sound like an extra step, freezing the dough helps avoid sad-looking and flat cookies. You want them to take the perfect shape, after all, right?

You may have encountered various "no chill cookie dough" on the Internet. While those recipes cut down a step, the cookies come out dry. Warmer dough quickly spreads in the oven.

💡 Top Tip: For better handling comfort and ease, let rest the cookies before baking for either 1 hour in the fridge or 20 minutes in the freezer.

5. How to bake

It is never a good idea to bake any dessert without preheating your oven. You will bake these cookies at 175 C / 347°F. Ideally, you should preheat the oven to +20C / 68F. Why? Well, the temperature inside the oven tends to drop when you open the door.

1. Preheat your oven to 175 C / 347°F (no fan)
2. Transfer your pumpkin cheesecake cookies to the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes
3. Remove them from the oven when the edges look well-baked, and the middle part looks fudgy
4. Let the cookies rest for a few minutes before removing them from the parchment paper
5. Keep them on a cooling rack

Due to the filling, these pumpkin cookies with cream cheese filling take longer to bake than the regular chocolate chip cookie.

💡 Top Tip: Avoid under or over-baked cookies by using a digital oven thermometer to keep the temperature in check.

6. Apply the cinnamon sugar coating

Do not serve the snickerdoodles pumpkin cheesecake cookies yet! You do not want to miss the flavorful cinnamon sugar coating. Prepare it while your baked cookies are resting on the cooling rack. Here is how I like making the coating for my fall cookies.

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together, including sugar and pumpkin spice (you can use cinnamon powder as a substitute for pumpkin spice)
2. Melt some butter separately
3. Lightly (but thoroughly) brush all your cookies with melted butter
4. Dump the butter-covered cookies in the pumpkin spice (or cinnamon powder) and sugar mixture
5. Serve them fresh (you can store your cookies in the refrigerator and consume them for up to three days)

💡 Top Tip: Use a gentle hand for brushing the cookies with the melted butter. However, make sure the cookies are fully covered before dumping them in the pumpkin spice and sugar mixture.

🥣 Equipment notes

You do not need to use any high-end equipment to make these delicious and flavorful pumpkin cookies with cream cheese filling. I used a digital scale to measure my ingredients. After all, using the correct proportion of wet and dry ingredients is the key to getting the perfect cookie texture. If for some reason still using measuring cups, you might want to check out my tablespoons to cup conversion article.

An electric hand mixer helps mix ingredients together. You will need it to make mix the unsalted butter and sugar.

Make sure you use a good quality rubber spatula to fold the wet and dry cookie dough ingredients. It is one of the essential steps as they can influence the texture of the cookies. I also use a digital oven thermometer to avoid overbaking the pumpkin snickerdoodle cookies.

🎓 Expert tips

1. Do not begin assembling the cookie dough if it is not cold enough, so it does not stick to your hand while assembling the cookies. However, the dough should not be too frozen, as the firm dough can be hard to work with.
2. Do not skip freezing the cream cheese filling disc, as the melted filling mixture can be extremely hard to add to the dough. A melted creamy consistency is not only hard to work with it, but it can also affect the texture of your cookies.
3. Do not hesitate to use brown sugar instead of granulated sugar if you prefer a richer flavor profile.
4. Overbaking can result in a crumbly texture that will probably not be like. Therefore, make sure to check your cookies within 20-25 minute time.
5. If you wish to try another flavor option, consider adding strawberries or cranberries to the cream cheese mixture. Chop the fruits into small chunks to grind them before adding. Alternatively, you can blend cream cheese with the fruits.
6. For a classic old-fashioned version, try this Snickerdoodles Cookie Recipe. Or, for an easy delicious coffee cake, why not try this Pumpkin Crunch Cake?

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