Averie Cooks

0 Cookie Dough - To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or large mixing bowl with handheld electric mixer), add the melted and cooled (make sure it's cool or you will scramble the egg), sugars, and beat on medium-high speed until well combined. Stop and scrape down the sides of the bowl.
1 Add the pumpkin puree and beat to incorporate.
2 Add the egg yolk, vanilla, and beat to incorporate. Stop and scape down the sides of the bowl. Set aside momentarily.
3 In a separate large mixing bowl, add the flour, pumpkin pie spice, cinnamon, baking soda, cloves, cream of tartar *(See Notes) salt, and whisk to combine. Spices Tips - I add extra cinnamon and cloves because I am fond of the flavor. However, most blends of "pumpkin pie spice" contain a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, and sometimes lemon peel. Therefore, if you want to just add a bit more pumpkin pie spice if you don't have individual spices, go for it. And/or add other spices to your liking, i.e. ground ginger, ground nutmeg, etc. It's all personal preference.
4 Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, and beat on low speed to just incorporate; do not overmix.
5 Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours. Chilling Tips - If you don't have room for the whole mixing bowl, make a dough mound and wrap that in plastic wrap, and then place it in the fridge. You MUST chill the dough because it's far too soft to bake with at this point and your cookies will spread horribly if you attempt it. You can chill the dough longer than 2 hours (up to 24-36 hours before baking it) however if you plan to chill for more than 2 hours, form the cookie dough mounds or balls within the 2 hour window or else the dough could become unreasonably stiff and difficult to work with.
6 After 1-2 hours, remove the dough from the fridge, and using a medium cookie scoop (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) and form approximately 16 equal sized balls of dough. Give each ball a quick roll between your palms to smooth; set aside on baking sheets momentarily.
7 Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with Silpat baking mats, parchment paper, or spray the baking sheets well with nonstick spray.
8 Cinnamon-Sugar - To a medium bowl (not too small because you have to roll the dough balls through it), add the graulated sugar, cinnamon, and stir to combine.
9 Roll each mound of dough through the cinnamon sugar, and place about 8 mounds per baking sheet, evenly spaced. You do not need to flatten the dough mounds.
10 Bake for about 10 minutes, or as needed until done. Baking Tips - I always perfer baking one sheet of cookies at a time, on the center rack, and I rotate it midway through the baking time for the most even baking. However, you can bake two sheets at once if preferred. Baking time is just an estimate or guideline, and your cookies may take more or less time to bake depending on your oven, how cold the dough was going into the oven, the exact size of your cookie dough balls, etc. Cookies are done when they are set on the top and lightly golden browned and will have the tell-tale crinkling of a snickerdoodle cookie, although that also continues to develop at the cookies cool.
11 Allow cookies to cool on the baking sheets for 5-10 minutes, or until cool and set enough to transfer to wire racks, where they can cool completely.  Cinnamon-Sugar Tip - Sometimes it can seem that the cinnamon-sugar coating almost disappears during the baking process. But don't worry if that happens to you! Simply sprinkle the baked cookies with an extra large pinch of cinnamon-sugar right after you pull them out of them oven while they're cooling on the baking sheets.