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Sweet, warming, and delicious White Chocolate Chai Pumpkin Snickerdoodles. Homemade snickerdoodle cookies, made with spiced pumpkin butter, and swirled with white chocolate chips. Each cookie dough ball is rolled through chai spiced sugar just before being baked to perfection. Each bite is soft and chewy with sweet notes of vanilla and chai.
Cookie season is very much upon us and I’m starting a little early. Because let’s be honest, you can already feel the holiday craze. Cookies are needed!
It’s true, I was just talking to my mom and we’re both shocked at how soon the world seems to have moved into all things Christmas. What happened to Thanksgiving?
Either way, things are busy and some nights just need a good cookie. I made these with Thanksgiving in mind, but tonight’s a perfect night to test out the recipe, you know?
These are the perfect November cookie!
I made them with my favorite pumpkin butter and then swirled white chocolate chips into the cookie dough for a sweet holiday touch that feels extra special.
And then, chai spice. I know some might not consider these “chai” because there’s no tea involved. But my spice blend uses all the same spices found in a warm cup of chai. It’s the perfect spice blend and is so delicious when you roll these into pumpkin snickerdoodles.
The steps
Thankfully, if you want to bake these up tonight…the process is simple.
As usual with most cookies, start out by beating the butter and sugar together. I love to use dark brown sugar for an added depth of flavor. Next, beat in the pumpkin butter, lots of vanilla, and an egg.
Next comes the dry ingredients. Once you mix everything in you’ll have yummy pumpkin snickerdoodle cookie dough.
To make the dough even more delicious stir in a handful of white chocolate chips. They add a sweet specialness to every bite.
Moving onto the chai spiced sugar. This really is the heart of the recipe, and where a good amount of the warming flavors come from.
The spices include lots of cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, all-spice, and a tiny pinch of black pepper. Just add sugar to the mix to make it perfectly sweet! It’s cinnamon sugar, just kicked up a notch.
Roll each cookie dough ball through the sugar, then place them on a baking sheet, flatten the dough balls down a bit and bake!
Everything about these cookies is delicious. They’re sweet, chewy, soft, cinnamony, and all things cozy…my favorite word this time of year.
If you eat them warm, they really will melt in your mouth.
These aren’t your average cookies, but they’re such a nice switch up! Bake them up tonight to enjoy, share them with family on Thanksgiving, and maybe even package them up in your Christmas cookie boxes. They really are loved by all!
Looking for other sweet pumpkin recipes? Here are my favorites:
Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Blondies
Pumpkin Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Vanilla Chai Pumpkin Latte Cupcakes
Cream Cheese Swirled Cinnamon Pumpkin Butter Bread
Lastly, if you make these White Chocolate Chai Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
White Chocolate Chai Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Servings: 18 cookies
Calories Per Serving: 166 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 stick (8 tablespoons) salted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup pumpkin butter (see note)
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (see note)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
Chai Sugar
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon all-spice
- 1 tiny pinch black pepper
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.2. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until combined. Add the pumpkin butter, egg, and vanilla and beat until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Fold in the white chocolate.3. To make the chai spice sugar, combine all ingredients in a shallow bowl. 4. Roll the dough into rounded 1 tablespoon size balls and then roll through the chai sugar. Place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Using the palm of your hand, gently flatten the dough balls down a little. 5. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and tap the baking sheet on the counter 2 times to flatten them down. Return to the oven and bake another 2-3 minutes or until the cookies are just beginning to set on the edges, but still doughy in the center. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet. They will continue to cook slightly as they sit on the baking sheet. Eat warm or let cool and then store in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
Notes
Pumpkin Butter: if you don’t have pumpkin butter, use 1/3 cup canned pumpkin puree, but blot away any excess water/moisture with a paper towel to remove the added moisture.
Flour: if the dough is feeling too sticky to touch, add 2-6 tablespoons additional flour.
This post was originally published on November 9, 2021
I would bake these everyday just to have my house smell this amazing. These were delicious. I used canned pumpkin without issues but will try the pumpkin butter recipe in the future just to taste the difference. ?
Hey Jordan,
Thanks a lot for giving this recipe a try, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Have the best day! xTieghan
These look so good! Could i use apple butter instead of pumpkin Butter? I live somewhere that you can’t get pumpkin butter or pumpkin purée but I have some homemade apple butter. Wondering if it will work as a substitute. Thanks
Hey Laura,
The apple butter with change the flavor slightly but it should definitely work for you! I hope you love this recipe, please let me know if you give it a try! xTieghan
Mine came out soft and fluffy, but we’re still delish! Why didn’t they come out flatter and crisper like the pic shows?
Hey Elizabeth,
Awesome!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a bunch for giving it a try! Did you bang them on the counter? Mine are flat, but they are not crispy:) xTieghan
Mine also came out soft and fluffy! They didn’t flatten out even when I tapped them on the counter like the recipe says. Not sure what we did wrong!
BIG HIT! And even better the next day! They’re incredibly soft and fluffy.
My baking notes:
I browned the butter, solely because I enjoy giving my holiday cookies a more nutty flavor. I let the butter cool to room temp before adding it with the sugars. With all of the other rich spices, I didn’t notice a difference, so I’m not sure I would do this step again.
I used left over pumpkin butter I had in the fridge – Tieghan’s recipe is perfect. I didn’t need to add more flour. I’m guessing you would if you used pumpkin pie filling instead since it’s more moist.
I halved the chai sugar recipe and I still ended up with too much. I rolled each cookie in the sugar and even sprinkled some on top after flattening. I would recommend halving the chair sugar so that less goes to waste. You can always put together more.
Hey there,
Thanks a lot for giving this recipe a try, I am so glad to hear it was enjoyed! Thanks for sharing what worked well for you. Have the best day! xTieghan
My cookies turned out delicious and soft. Used pumpkin purée instead of pumpkin butter.
I’m going to cook it a bit longer and omit the “tap on the counter” step and see if I can get more crunch
Hey Camille,
I am thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe, thanks a lot for giving it a try. I hope you have an amazing week! xTieghan
These cookies are SO good. Here in Indiana, our persimmon trees did very well this fall, so I used persimmon instead of pumpkin. Delicious!
Hey there,
Awesome!! I love to hear that this recipe was enjoyed, thanks a bunch for giving it a try! xTieghan
Absolutely delicious!! These were perfect!
Hey Savannah,
I am thrilled that you enjoyed this recipe, thanks a lot for giving it a try. I hope you have an amazing week! xTieghan
Sooo yummy! I didn’t have pumpkin so I did an extra egg yolk, and the texture was perfect. Also, I don’t love white chocolate but it works so well with the chai flavors. Another home run from Tieghan!
Thanks so much for trying out this recipe! 🙂 xTieghan
Made these for my weekend in a cabin and they were a hit! They are wonderfully delicious and the spice mixture is perfect ? they stayed soft and cake-like, absolutely stunning! Thank you for all your recipes, we use them weekly!
Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Happy Monday ? xTieghan
Oh my gosh, these cookies are so delicious! And I hate white chocolate. But it totally goes with this whole recipe. Made them yesterday and brought them to a party last night and they were a huge hit. Made them mostly as listed but did refrigerate the dough for a bit before rolling them into balls. The chai sugar on the outside is the best. I will definitely be making more of these.
Thank you so much, I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! Happy Monday ? xTieghan
The cookies taste delicious but mine came out very flat. Any idea why?
These were so yummy, but ended up a bit more cake-like in texture than I expected.
Also were very messy and needed a bit of shilling before they were hard enough to roll into balls.
I didn’t use chai sugar, but rolled them in cinnamon sugar I had left over from the pumpkin butter blondies.
Thank you so much for giving this recipe a try, I’m so happy to hear it was enjoyed! 🙂 xTieghan
These are wonderful! Fall in a cookie. We did have way too much of the chai sugar left over, could probably reduce that by half. I would add an extra handful of white house chips also. Delicious!
Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try, I’m so glad to hear it was enjoyed! xTieghan
These are by far my favorite cookie right now. 4 of us ate them all in 2 hours!!!
Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try Kimberly, I’m so glad to hear it was enjoyed! xTieghan
These are delicious but holy cow, making them was a hot mess. Additional flour, chilling the dough in the fridge, spraying oil on my hands, nothing helped. It was frustrating and wasteful because at least two cookies’ worth of dough ended up literally down the drain once I washed my hands, spoon handles, etc.
Hey Bethany! Oh no I’m so sorry about that! xTieghan
I made homemade pumpkin butter today specifically for this recipe. I followed the recipe exactly and they turned out fabulous! Nice and chewy, incredible flavor, with a little crunch from the sugar coating. I also had an issue with super sticky dough and additional flour didn’t really help, but I found that once I got a dollop into the sugar and coated it, it behaved better and they came out nice and round. Well done on this recipe, Tieghan!
Thanks so much for giving this recipe a try Melanie, I’m so glad to hear it was enjoyed! xTieghan
The flavor was good, but like many comments before mine, they came out fat and cakey. The flour ratio in the recipe is definitely off here.
Thanks so much for letting me know, I appreciate the feedback! xTieghan