Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars are soft, chewy and coated with cinnamon and sugar with tons of pumpkin flavor. Easier than cookies to make, these cookie bars are the perfect fall version of your favorite snickerdoodle cookie recipe!
I love snickerdoodle cookies. And pumpkin. Combining the two of them is absolutely amazing. And I love making cookie bars because you can just dump all of the dough into a pan and bake at once instead of scooping individual cookies and baking them in batches.
Snickerdoodles are even more time consuming than normal cookies because you have to coat each one in cinnamon and sugar. In this cookie bar recipe, you just sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar over all of the bars before baking and it works great! Another unique thing about this recipe is that there are no eggs needed.
Ingredients in Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
Butter – Make sure the butter is softened to room temperature before mixing with the sugars.
Sugar – Granulated sugar works perfectly for this recipe.
Brown sugar – Light brown sugar works the best in this recipe. Make sure the brown sugar is fresh and not stale or dried out.
Pumpkin – I just use pumpkin puree straight out of the can, but if you have homemade pumpkin puree, that should work great too!
Vanilla extract – The higher the quality of the vanilla, the better.
Milk – Milk serves the purpose of just thinning out the dough a little bit and adding some moisture. Any type of milk will work great, even a dairy-free alternative will be fine!
Flour – Regular, all-purpose flour works perfectly in this recipe, but cake flour would be fine too. I imagine that you could even swap out some or all of the flour with wheat flour, but the consistency and flavor would be a little bit different.
Cinnamon – Yes, there is pumpkin pie spice (which has cinnamon) in the recipe as well, but a little extra cinnamon never hurt anyone, right? Especially not when there is pumpkin involved…you just can’t have too much cinnamon!
Pumpkin Pie Spice – A delicious spice blend made of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves that is really easy to find in most grocery stores, especially in the fall!
Cream of tartar – A common spice that is often found in cookies. Helps to give these cookie bars the perfect consistency.
Salt– Only 1/4 tsp is needed, so you could probably even leave it out without too much of a taste difference, but even a little bit of salt can really make all of the other flavors pop even more.
Cinnamon/Sugar Topping – Mix sugar and cinnamon together to sprinkle over the top of the cookie bars to create that trademark snickerdoodle taste! Remember how you can’t have too much cinnamon?!
How to make Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
Preheat oven to 350°.
Cream butter and sugars together for 2-3 minutes with an electric mixer. Add the pumpkin, vanilla extract and milk and mix for another minute.
Add the flour, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, cream of tartar and salt and mix just until well combined.
Pour the cookie dough into a well greased 9X13 pan. Mix the 1 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar together and sprinkle evenly over the top of the dough.
Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Make sure not to overcook the bars or they won’t be as soft and moist as you want them to be!
Let the bars cool completely before slicing and serving. (Although they are really good warm too! Especially with ice cream!)
TIPS FOR MAKING THE BEST COOKIE BARS
- Do not melt the butter! The butter needs to be softened (at room temperature), but using melted butter will ruin the cookies.
- Spend a little extra time when you mix the butter and sugar. Creaming them together for 2-3 minutes will improve the consistency of your cookies.
- Preheat the oven. This will help your cookies turn out right every time!
- Make sure not to over bake your cookie bars. Once the edges begin to turn even the lightest golden brown, take them out of the oven! I prefer to err on the side of being slightly undercooked for cookies because if they cook even a little bit too long, they can get hard and I really like soft cookies!
LIKE COOKIE BARS? HERE ARE SOME OF OUR FAVORITE BAR COOKIE RECIPES!
- Strawberry Cheesecake Cookie Bars
- Sugar Cookie Bars
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- No Bake Cookie Bars
- Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars
- Lemon Sugar Cookie Bars
- Swirled Patriotic Cookie Bars
- Fudgy Oatmeal Cookie Bars
- Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars
- Peppermint Cookie Bars
- Cherry Almond Cookie Bars
- Tagalong Cookie Bars
Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookie Bars are soft, chewy and coated with cinnamon and sugar with tons of pumpkin flavor. Easier than cookies to make, these cookie bars are the perfect fall version of your favorite snickerdoodle cookie recipe!
This second daughter of mine has been busy this school year. She has only played soccer a couple of years ever, but decided she wanted to try out for the high school team this year. She trained all summer and made the team! One of my favorite things as a parent is watching my kids try new things and find things that they love to do. It’s been awesome to see her work so hard!
Diana says
My family loved these delicious cookies. I’m going to be making and sharing this recipe for my Christmas holiday cookie this season.
Hanna says
There is not a more perfect combo in all the land! I can’t wait to make these with my kids!