I know Christmas comes the same day every year but can we extend it out another month? I'm not done here. Sure, I managed to get my tree up, presents purchased, PTO scheduled, and have just about finalized plans for visiting family but dang it, I want to bake!
Who am I kidding? I'll keep baking anyways. Even come January when everyone will want recipes for their new Instant Pots, air fryers, and "for the love of god just put a vegetable in something already", I'll still be over here happily working on my new cupcake recipe. Yes, cupcakes are coming.
For the record, ⅓ cup of pumpkin divided among 15 cookies still counts as a vegetable. Kind of.
These pumpkin snickerdoodles are the first vegan cookie I've ever made and it only took me one attempt to get it right. That's not very typical for me when it comes to creating baking recipes, let alone vegan baking recipes. I'm pretty happy about that but there's a reason why it worked so well - the pumpkin acted as an egg replacer.
You know how a lot of store bought treats claim to be pumpkin flavored but just taste like pumpkin spice in the end? I wanted to make a cookie with enough pumpkin in it to actually taste it but I was worried about how I could do that without making the cookie too wet. Once I remembered that pumpkin can be an egg replacer, I realized I could just replace the egg instead of adding more wet ingredients.
Yes, pumpkin is an egg replacer in traditional baking but with gluten free, it gets kind of scary. In my experience, an egg is a better binder than pumpkin and without gluten holding everything together, I was scared my cookies would either melt into puddles or crumble into sand the moment they came off the cookie sheet. I mean, xanthan gum is great but it doesn't perform miracles by any means.
To my surprise, no melting and no crumbling! The texture is slightly crisp on the edges with the sugar coating providing a little extra crunch. The inside of the cookie is light and fluffy despite being moist and almost creamy from the pumpkin. Basically it's a traditional snickerdoodle texture. I think so anyways. It's been a few years...
That being said, after I stored these in an airtight container overnight, they lost some of their crispiness and crumbled easier. It wasn't terrible but definitely not as sturdy as fresh. I didn't photograph them until the next day and after I rearranged them so many times, they crumbled a bit and two of them broke. You can kind of tell in the photos. Next time, I think I will cover them loosely with a lid because I feel like the airtight container locked in too much moisture. I'd skip stacking them on each other too now that I think of it but overall, it's still a pretty sturdy texture for egg free and gluten free!
Recipe
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Soft and fluffy pumpkin snickerdoodles with a rich pumpkin flavor coated in sugar and pumpkin spice. Vegan and gluten free.
Ingredients
- 1 C sugar, divided
- 2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 1 ½ C Bob’s Red Mill Gluten Free 1 to 1 Baking Flour *see notes
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp cream of tartar
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ C dairy free butter, softened ( I used Earth Balance soy free baking sticks)
- ⅓ C pumpkin puree
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ºF.
- In a small bowl, combine ¼ C of sugar with the pumpkin spice. Set aside.
- Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Set aside.
- In a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream together the remaining ¾ C sugar with the softened butter. Add pumpkin and vanilla then mix until combined.
- Slowly mix the flour mixture into the wet ingredients.
- Use a cookie scoop or a spoon to make about 15 identically sized cookies (it's okay if you have a few more or less) and roll them into balls. Gently roll the balls in the sugar pumpkin spice mixture and place on a baking sheet.
- Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until fully cooked. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for about 2 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to finish cooling. Enjoy!
Notes
- Potential allergens contained in these cookies may vary due to brands of ingredients used, product reformulations, etc. Please verify that all your ingredients are safe for you to consume and always be mindful of allergen cross contamination while cooking.
- I’ve tried several different 1-1 gluten free flours in cookie recipes and have had many cookies fall apart and crumble. Unless you have another reliable 1-1 gluten free flour that contains xanthan gum, I would stick with Bob’s Red Mill since that’s what these were tested with. Note that this is made in a facility with tree nuts and soy according to the package I had.
These will be a holiday favorite. They are crispy and chewy and delicious.
Thanks! I was really happy with the texture.