Chewy Pumpkin Cookies

These chewy pumpkin cookies have chewy edges with moist and gooey centers. Bursting with pumpkin flavor, they taste like pumpkin pie thanks to reduced pumpkin puree and lots of fall spices!

I love pumpkin cookies–so much that I did a pumpkin cookie bake off where I baked 9 different pumpkin cookie recipes in one day in search of the best. While I loved many of the recipes in the bake off, I was in the mood for a type of cookie those 9 recipes didn’t offer–a slightly flatter but still chewy, medium thick cookie that was bursting with pumpkin flavor. So I set out to adapt some of my favorite recipes to achieve my ideal cookie!

How I developed this recipe

I used one of my favorite recipes from the bake off, I Will Not Eat Oysters, as inspiration. This recipe is genius the way it cooks down pumpkin puree for a concentrated pumpkin flavor, but I wanted a slightly chewier, less cakey cookie. For the actual cookie ratios, I looked at Sarah Kieffer’s white chocolate macadamia nut cookie recipe–I loved how doughy and fudgy her cookies, and figured they’d be a good jumping off point while incorporating reduced pumpkin puree. After around 5 different attempts, here are the changes I made:

• Less flour: I wanted a cookie that was less puffy with more spread, so a higher ratio of wet to dry ingredients made sense.
• More granulated sugar, less brown sugar: Again, white sugar helps with more spread and crisp edges–but I still wanted a little brown sugar for flavor.
• No baking powder, only baking soda: I didn’t need rise in the cookies, just spread–so baking powder wasn’t necessary.
• Omitted the eggs: The pumpkin acts as a binder similar to eggs and I found these cookies were great without eggs.
• Kept the spice blend: I kept the perfect-to-me spice blend of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves from I Will Not Eat Oysters, but if you can swap in the same volume of pumpkin pie spice if that’s all you have.

I did attempt these several times with finely chopped macadamia nuts, but ultimately found I preferred these with just white chocolate. I did also test a batch with olive oil (the four cookies on the right side of the baking sheet in the below photo), but really disliked the flavor.

Note: I was testing these by the half batch, intending to write up the final recipe as a full batch. But I actually liked the perfect 10 cookies that these yielded every time, so I wrote out the recipe as such. Obviously feel free to double it if you want more cookies!

Ingredients

• Pumpkin puree: While you can use any brand, I highly recommend using Libby’s or Trader Joe’s pumpkin puree. I tested this with a generic brand of pumpkin that was far more watery and pale compared to Libby’s or Trader Joe’s, which are consistently thicker and more vibrant. Or if you have a trusted brand, use it!
• Unsalted butter: I always prefer using unsalted butter to control the salt level, but you can use salted butter and simply omit the extra salt.
• Spices: I use powdered cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves. Feel free to use freshly grated nutmeg if you have it on hand and would like a little extra punch.
• Granulated sugar: A slightly higher proportion of granulated sugar helps these cookies spread and crisp up around the edges.
• Brown sugar: There’s such a small amount of brown sugar in these–you can use light or dark brown sugar. It’s mainly just for a hint of that molasses-y flavor!
• Kosher salt: I almost always bake with Diamond Crystal kosher salt. If using table salt or Morton’s kosher salt which is denser and saltier, you can reduce the salt by a pinch.
• White chocolate: I tested these with white chocolate chips, Ghiradelli white chocolate wafers, and chopped white chocolate. Any will work–it’s simply a matter of the dispersion of chocolate you prefer and how you want the finished product to look. The chopped white chocolate will lead to pools of chocolate on top.

How to make these pumpkin cookies

Reducing the pumpkin puree takes a few extra minutes–but once you’re done, these cookies are extremely straightforward to make. While you could technically mix everything in the same pot, I like the transfer the puree out of the pot after melting in the butter and spices to help cool down the dough so the chocolate doesn’t melt.

Can I make these cookies ahead of time?

Yes, you can refrigerate the dough for up to several days in an airtight container. The chilled dough will spread less, so make sure to flatten out the dough balls with damp fingertips before baking if you want more spread. You may also need to add an extra minute or two of bake time if baking straight from the fridge.