Pumpkin Caramel Snickerdoodles

Ingredients
 3¾ cups all ­purpose flour 
1½ tsp. baking powder 
½ tsp. salt 
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
 ¼ tsp. freshly ­ground ground nutmeg
 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (I used regular butter) 
1 cup granulated sugar
 ½ cup light brown sugar 
¾ cup pumpkin puree 
1 large egg 
2 tsp. vanilla extract
36 soft caramels, like Kraft 
Cinnamon-­sugar coating:
½ cup granulated sugar 
1 tsp. ground cinnamon 
½ tsp. ground ginger 
Dash of allspice (didn't use)

 Instructions 
1. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together. Set aside. 
2. Beat together the butter and sugars on medium high speed until fluffy about 2­-3 minutes. 
3. Blend in pumpkin puree, beat in egg and then add vanilla. Slowly add dry ingredients on low speed just until combined. Cover and chill dough for an hour. 
4. Preheat oven to 350 and line your baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and spices for the coating and set aside. 
5. To make the cookies, take a tablespoon of the cookie batter. Flatten it like a pancake and place a caramel in center. Form another tablespoon of the cookie batter into a flat pancake shape and place on top of the caramel. Pinch the edges together sealing in the caramel and roll into a ball. Roll in the cinnamon sugar coating and place on the prepared baking sheet 2 inches apart. 
6. Repeat until the dough is gone and flatten the cookie dough balls with a heavy bottomed glass or measuring cup. (I missed this instruction and didn't flatten-- still worked and yummy!)
7. Bake the cookies for 10 to ­15 minutes or until the tops start to crack. Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack. Enjoy! 
Notes *The cookie dough will be slightly sticky. If you need to lightly flour your fingers you can. (I just used my food handling gloves--- so sticky mess on my hands) *I have found that if you flatten the caramels just a bit they melt easier.

I had a little extra dough left and just made it into cookies--- they make great pumpkin snickerdoodles without the caramels!! YUM

http://therecipecritic.com/2015/11/caramel-pumpkin-snickerdoodles/