Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

All my cookies for this year's Holiday Bake-A-Thon are new.  And considering this fact, it's impressive that this year's production took much less time then year's past.  I think I finally figured out multitasking.  Ha.  I wanted to incorporate the season's flavors: pumpkin, peppermint, and eggnog.  (I probably could have added something gingerbread-y too...but I didn't want to be too ambitious!)  I chose this Pumpkin Snickerdoodle recipe from the Six Sister's Stuff blog (there's lots of great stuff here).  These cookies, of course, turned out tasting delicious!  They're so soft and pumpkin-y.  I love it.  

   
Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Ingredients:
1 stick margarine (I used real butter...Paula Deen would be proud)
1/2 cup shortening (I used the butter flavored kind because that's what we already had)
1 cup white granulated sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
3/4 cup unsweetened pumpkin puree (do NOT use pumpkin pie filling!)
1 large egg
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

*Topping:
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 Tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger (or more to taste...I went with a whole tsp) 

*Note: You probably will not use all of this, but it's okay!  I used the extra up in a recipe for scones, which I'll be posting soon.      

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix together the margarine/butter, shortening, sugars, pumpkin, and egg, beat well. Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon and mix until well-blended.
Chill dough until it's a better consistency for rolling into balls.  (I cheated and put it in the freezer so it would go faster.)
Roll into balls the size of small walnuts.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, cinnamon, and ginger. Roll dough balls in sugar mixture until completely covered.
Place dough balls about 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 7ish minutes until lightly browned, but still soft.
Makes a ton of cookies (at least 4-5 dozen).