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Grain-free Pumpkin Snickerdoodles are a Paleo, Vegan, and Gluten-Free cookie that is perfect for the fall! These make a great snack or dessert, and are a crowd pleaser!
A fall twist on a classic cookie!
Can I just tell you how excited I am to start bringing on the pumpkin recipes. It’s one of my favorite ingredients to cook with and I love this time of year when I can add it to just about anything! These delicious cookies are the perfect way to kick-off the pumpkin season. A classic cookie recipe that gets a pumpkin makeover and has only wholesome ingredients with no refined sugar. Yep, that’s right. Go ahead and eat them for breakfast if you want. These delicious, buttery, spiced cookies were also an afternoon snack for my kids who gave them rave reviews.
“Best day ever!” said the little guy.
“I want to bring them to school and let my friends try these!” said Miss Carbivore.
They can be tough critics too. You only hear about the recipes they love, but trust me, there are recipes I create and hope to share with you, but sometimes they get the thumbs down from my kiddos. They were the ones who were initially gave me the idea for these cookies.
Another great thing about these cookies is they are SUPER easy. No fancy mixers, just a large spoon and a bowl. Let’s get started!
How to make Grain-Free Pumpkin Snickerdoodles:
Here is what you need:
- almond flour
- baking powder or baking soda
- sea salt
- pumpkin pie spice
- coconut oil
- pumpkin puree
- maple syrup
- vanilla extract
- cinnamon
- coconut sugar
We start with 2 separate bowls. Mix together the dry ingredients: almond flour, baking powder, sea salt, and pumpkin pie spice. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients: melted coconut oil, pumpkin puree, maple syrup, and vanilla extract.
Add the dry ingredients with wet ingredients and mix the batter well, stick them in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Remove from the fridge and form them into small balls. In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon and sugar. Dip each cookie ball into the cinnamon mixture. You will want the balls to be about the size of a ping-pong ball:
Press down on the cookies to flatten, then transfer to the oven to bake.
Bake for about 12 minutes, and let them cool completely on the pan. Remove and enjoy!!!
Grain-Free Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 2 cups almond flour
- 1 tsp baking powder*
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
- 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
- 3 tbsp pumpkin puree
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup cinnamon
- 1/4 cup coconut/palm sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350.
- In a large bowl, mix together almond flour, baking powder, salt, and pumpkin spice powder.
- In a separate small bowl, whisk together coconut oil, pumpkin puree, syrup, vanilla extract.
- Add the wet ingredients to dry. Mix together until wet, and sticky. Refrigerate for about 10 minutes (this allows the dough to get a little more sticky and firm).
- In a small bowl, mix cinnamon and coconut sugar.
- Form dough balls that are about 1.5 inches in diameter, roll dough into cinnamon mixture. Place on a cookie sheet. Using a jar or glass, flatten cookies to about 1/2 inch thick.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes (depending on oven and thickness of cookies). Cookies should feel firm on the top, but may be soft in the middle. They will continue to get firmer once out of the oven.
- Cool completely on the cookie sheet.
My dough was super dry and would only kind of set up after adding additional wet ingredients. Even after cooking they just fell apart . I also didnt like the flavor. Not a fan sorry.
The weird thing about snickerdoodles to me was always the use of Cream of Tartar. I don’t see it in your recipe as you use baking powder instead.. What type of difference will I see? Any particular reason it was not used?
No particular reason. I just prefer baking powder instead as it contains both cream of tartar and baking soda. You can substitute if you’d like, but I would recommend adding baking soda too! 1/2 tsp cream of tarter and 1/8 tsp baking soda.
Thanks for the tip about using both coconut and tapioca flour. Can’t do nuts. Going to go make these now.
Why not eggs and how many of them? And also it seems like there are not enough of the spices used for the recipe ??
Hi Nancy, no eggs in these cookies as I was making them Vegan friendly for some of my readers. The pumpkin acts as a great binding agent and eggs are not needed. Plenty of spice with the pumpkin pie spice and they are coated in cinnamon. Feel free to double the pumpkin pie spice if you’d like more!
i Made these last night and substituted the almond flour with the coconut and tapioca flour. However, the dough was not sticky. It was very dry. I added more maple syrup and pumpkin. It still was very dry. I added more maple syrup and pumpkin. In the end, I had to add an egg. Although it was still crumbly, I knew that it was going to work. They taste wonderful but they are more cakey and chewy than a snickerdoodle.
You can’t substitute coconut for almond flour 1-1.
Can I use xylitol instead of maple syrup? Maybe a touch of maple extract?
Sure, the maple syrup really adds depth so the extract is a must!
I wonder how this would work with cassava flour? I can’t do nuts.
I think it would work just fine! I haven’t tried it yet, but you can easily replace cassava flour for almond meal or flour in most recipes.
Oh. My. Gosh! I’m noshing on these right now and they are SO good! Great idea to “pumpkinize” snicker doodles! Thanks for the recipe!
All purpose flour would probably be best, but the cookie will be dry. I would add more coconut oil (another tbsp), add more pumpkin (another tbsp), and test the consistency. If it still seems dry, add an egg. I have only made them with almond flour so this is my best guess!
Almond flour I’d pretty expensive here, I was going to buy some but decided against it. If I’m not doing this gluten free can I use while wheat flour? Will it do ok? Or would all purpose be better?
Just baked these, they are really good.
Glad you enjoyed them!