If you’re looking for a pumpkin cookie that is soft and chewy, you’re going to LOVE these chewy pumpkin cookies. They’re chewy, verging on fudgy, and they ACTUALLY taste like pumpkin (not just like spices!).
When I was researching for this chewy pumpkin cookies recipe, I checked out Pancake Princess’s pumpkin cookies bake-off. She confirmed what I thought: it’s hard to find a pumpkin cookie recipe that is both (A) not cakey and (B) actually tastes like pumpkin.
So that got me jazzed to develop a chewy pumpkin cookies recipe that delivers on all the things we’re looking for in a pumpkin cookie: a soft and chewy, almost fudgy texture, robust pumpkin flavor, warm spices and vanilla.
And let me tell you, these soft and chewy pumpkin cookies hit the dang mark. I have been OB – SESSED with these. And my fiancee says they’re one of her all-time favorite desserts.
Get ready the BEST soft and chewy pumpkin cookies.
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Cookies
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- They actually taste like pumpkin! When I was researching for this recipe, I found in a Pancake Princess pumpkin cookie bakeoff, that people found most pumpkin recipes don’t actually taste like pumpkin. These cookies use extra pumpkin puree to taste delightfully like pumpkin PLUS the warm flavors of pumpkin spice and vanilla. They simply are the best soft pumpkin cookies.
- Chewy texture, not cakey! We remove excess liquid from the pumpkin to get a moist, chewy cookie.
- Pumpkin spice drizzle on top. We use the pumpkin juice that you squeeze out from the puree to make an easy pumpkin drizzle on top of the cookies.
- You can freeze the dough balls and have pumpkin cookies whenever you want! A true dream.
Ingredients
- Pumpkin puree: Real pumpkin puree NOT pumpkin pie filling or pumpkin butter.
- All purpose flour: I typically use King Arthur Flour All Purpose Flour.
- Baking soda and baking powder: Make sure yours are not expired before using.
- Fine kosher or sea salt: NOT fine table salt – that is too fine! If that’s all you have, reduce the amount of salt by half.
- Pumpkin pie spice: If you don’t have pumpkin pie spice, you can make your own. Sally’s Baking Addiction has a recipe that looks solid!
- Unsalted butter: I use Cabot because it’s a great quality butter that’s not too pricey where I live.
- Light brown sugar: Brown sugar helps keep the cookies soft and moist.
- One egg yolk: We use just the yolk instead of whole eggs to keep the cookies chewy instead of cakey.
- Vanilla extract: opt for real vanilla extract, not imitation, for the best flavor.
- Powdered sugar: We use this for the pumpkin spice drizzle.
My Tricks to Getting Soft and Chewy NOT Cakey Pumpkin Cookies
- Squeezing water out of the pumpkin puree. Pumpkin puree has a LOT and I mean a LOT of water. When cookies bake, water in the dough turns to steam, which create air pockets that make cookies taller and fluffier, rather than chewy. Water also can lead to greater gluten formation that can make cookies a little tough. SO by squeezing out most of the liquid with paper towels, we keep our cookies tender and chewy.
- One egg yolk instead of a whole egg. Egg yolks have all of the fat of the egg and just under half of the protein, but a LOT less water than egg whites. SO using just an egg yolk will add tenderness and chew, without the cakeiness of the white’s water content.
- All light brown sugar. We only use light brown sugar in this recipe. The molasses from the brown sugar makes the cookie more moist, soft and chewy.
Tips for the BEST chewy pumpkin cookies
- Make sure your melted butter is cooled slightly before you mix with the brown sugar. If not, you risk melting the sugar.
- Properly measure your flour. People have a tendency to over-measure flour. If you add too much flour to these pumpkin cookies, they will turn out as cakey cookies.
- Kitchen Scale: I always use a kitchen scale to measure my ingredients – you can get a pretty cheap scale on Amazon (I used a $12 scale for years and now use a $28 KitchenAid scale).
- Cup Measure: If you’re using a cup measure, first fluff the flour in its bag, then use a spoon to place it into your measuring cup. Level the flour off by scraping the flat edge of a knife across the top of the cup measure.
- Use a cookie scoop! Cookie scoops will help the cookies bake nice and round, and will make sure all cookies bake for the same amount of time. I own this trio of cookie scoops, and I used the mid-sized red one (2.8 TBS).
- Let the dough chill. Chilling lets the flour work its way into the rest of the ingredients, bringing out the best flavor. We chill this dough for ideally 2 hours, but at least 1 hour.
- Underbake your cookies a little. This makes the flavor more pronounced and the texture is more chewy and fudgy.
FAQs
Yes! You can make the dough in advance and chill it for up to 24 hours, or freeze the cookie dough balls for up to 3 months in a freezer bag. When baking from frozen, just add a few minutes to the baking time.
You can store these cookies in an airtight container or covered in plastic wrap at room temperature for 3 days.
Using egg yolks and all brown sugar really help make a chewier cookie. This is because egg yolks have high fat and protein content, without the water of the egg whites. Brown sugar has molasses in it, which makes cookies moist and tender. In these chewy pumpkin cookies, we also squeeze excess liquid from the pumpkin puree, helping keep them chewy.
These pumpkin cookies don’t need browned butter, but you can do it if you feel! Just add one ice cube (1 TBS) of water after the butter has browned to restore the water that evaporated in the browning process.
You can add semi-sweet chocolate chips, dark chocolate chips or white chocolate chips – whatever you feel! I do think chocolate takes away from the pumpkin flavor in these cookies, but feel free to go for it.
Looking for more fall baking recipes?
- If you want more pumpkin, try these beloved pumpkin crumb muffins that are a riff on my grandma’s pumpkin bread.
- If you’re getting into pie season, check out chai apple pie and ginger key lemon pie.
- If you want some cozy bakes, go for brown butter chocolate chip blondies, half-baked single serve cookie skillet (for two), or dirty chai cinnamon rolls.
If you make these soft and chewy pumpkin cookies, please leave a rating and review below and tag me on Instagram or TikTok at @loaves.and.such!
Soft and Chewy Pumpkin Cookies
16
cookies25
minutes1-2
HoursIf you’re looking for a pumpkin cookie that is soft and chewy, you’re going to LOVE these chewy pumpkin cookies. They’re chewy, verging on fudgy, and they ACTUALLY taste like pumpkin (not just like spices!).
Keep the screen of your device on
Ingredients
1/3 cup (160 grams) pumpkin puree
2 1/4 cup (270 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp. fine kosher or sea salt
1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 1/4 cup (266 grams) light brown sugar
1 egg yolk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup (113 grams) powdered sugar
Directions
- First, prep the pumpkin puree. This is the trickiest part of the recipe, but you have certainly got it. You’re going put the 2/3 cup of pumpkin puree on top of 3-4 layers of paper towels. Hold the puree over a regular cereal bowl, and gently squeeze all around the pumpkin puree. A LOT of liquid will come out. Go gently so that the puree doesn’t squeeze of the paper towel.
You want to go until most of the moisture is out. You’ll tell if it’s ready by either measuring scant 1/3 cup, or weighing it at 80 grams. Set aside both the puree and pumpkin juice (we’ll use that later!). - Next, prep the dry ingredients. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin spice and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk well.
- Now we’re ready to dough it up! In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the melted and cooled butter and brown sugar until there’s no separation. Whisk in the egg yolk, vanilla extract and your squeezed-out pumpkin puree until evenly combined.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until there’s no streaks of flour left (don’t over-fold or you can make your cookies tough).
- Using a 3 Tablespoon-sized scoop, scoop the cookies onto a rimmed baking tray, cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1-2 hours, or up to 24 hours. You can get away with 1 hour if you scoop the cookies into balls, but I typically prefer doing 2 hours for the best flavor.
- While the dough chills, make the pumpkin spice drizzle! Mix together 1 1/2 TBS. pumpkin juice with the 1C of powdered sugar.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Place the cookies 3 inches apart on the prepared sheet. Bake for 11-12 minutes, just until the edges are set and the tops aren’t wet. They’ll feel a little underbaked and the tops of the cookies won’t necessarily be golden brown. They’ll continue to bake when outside the oven and the middle will be perfectly chewy and a little fudgy.
- Let the cookies cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Drizzle on that drizzle (you can use a spoon or a pastry bag, either works!). Enjoy!
