I’m confident you’ll love these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! I worked hard to create a chewy pumpkin cookie that’s not cakey like most pumpkin cookie recipes. Omitting the egg, using melted butter, and blotting the pumpkin guarantee these pumpkin cookies taste like my favorite chewy chocolate chip cookies with brilliant pumpkin spice flavor.
Sometimes you just need a chocolate chip cookie, especially when pumpkin spice season—I mean fall—takes over.
Out of all my pumpkin recipes, you’re looking at one of the best. Right up there with my great pumpkin pie recipe! Originally published in 2013, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are a constant hit with bakers around the world. I bake at least 3-4 batches each fall season and they ALWAYS put me in a fall state of mind. Sometimes I even replace the chocolate chips with chopped pecans or roll them in cinnamon sugar to yield pumpkin snickerdoodles!
These Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Are:
- Soft-baked, but not as soft as a piece of cake
- Chewy
- Egg-free
- Buttery
- Perfectly spiced and you can use homemade pumpkin pie spice!
- Relatively quick—only 30 minutes to chill the dough
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Video
This is Not a Cakey Pumpkin Cookie
I have appreciation for all pumpkin cookies, but I definitely prefer chewy pumpkin cookies over cakey pumpkin cookies. My regular pumpkin cookies taste like soft & cakey muffin tops. They’re obviously good, but sometimes you crave a pumpkin cookie that has the same dense & chewy texture as a regular chocolate chip cookie.
I call this the “cakey pumpkin cookie problem.” When I began recipe testing today’s cookies, I was desperate to find a solution that would help guarantee a denser texture. And guess what? I finally solved it. You see, pumpkin is soft, mushy, and full of moisture. In fact, pumpkin puree is approximately 90% water by mass. (That’s what helps make pumpkin bread so moist!) But for cookies, excessive moisture = cakey texture. Think about cake batter or muffin batter—it’s a lot more wet than cookie dough, right? We actually want cookie dough to be sturdier and drier to produce denser, chewier cookies.
My 4 Tricks to Apply in this Recipe
- Blot the Pumpkin: This first trick is actually optional, but I find it remarkably useful when I make pumpkin oatmeal cookies. Using a paper towel, blot out some of the pumpkin’s moisture so all that’s left is the flavor. See photo below. Use the blotted pumpkin in the cookie dough.
- Melted Butter: As you know from chewy chocolate chip cookies, melted butter makes cookies ultra chewy. Instead of creaming butter and sugars together, start with melted butter and whisk in the sugars. You don’t need a mixer!
- Skip the Eggs: What is the purpose of eggs in a cookie recipe? They bind ingredients together, tenderize the texture, and leave behind moisture. After some experimenting, I cut out the egg completely. Pumpkin replaces the eggs. If you’re looking for other egg-free baking recipes, give my shortbread cookies a try.
- Give it Time: Let the cookies cool on a cooling rack for awhile. They’re delicious warm from the oven, but I find both their chewiness and flavor amplify over time. Sometimes I even leave them uncovered on the cooling rack overnight. The next day, they’re chewier and more flavorful. That being said, this is an awesome make-ahead dessert recipe!
Chill for Only 30 Minutes
This pumpkin chocolate chip cookie dough is a little sticky. Chill for at least 30 minutes before rolling into balls and baking. The cookies only spread slightly in the oven, so slightly flatten out the cookie dough balls with the back of a spoon before baking.
Chewy Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Yield: 18 cookies
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
I’m confident you’ll love these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! Omitting the egg, using melted butter, and blotting the pumpkin guarantee a chewier texture.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) unsalted butter, melted & slightly cooled
- 1/4 cup (50g) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 6 Tablespoons (86g) pumpkin puree (see note)*
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon store-bought or homemade pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 cup (90g) semi-sweet chocolate chips, plus a few extra for the tops
Instructions
- Whisk the melted butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl until no brown sugar lumps remain. Whisk in the vanilla and blotted pumpkin until smooth. Set aside.
- Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and pumpkin pie spice together in a large bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix together with a large spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be very soft. Fold in 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. The chips may not stick to the dough because of the melted butter, but do your best to combine.
- Cover the dough and chill for 30 minutes or up to 3 days. Chilling the dough is imperative for this recipe.
- Remove dough from the refrigerator. Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Scoop the dough, about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, and roll each into balls. Arrange cookie dough balls 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Using the back of a spoon or the bottom of a cup/measuring cup, slightly flatten the tops of the dough balls. (Without doing so, the cookies may not spread.)
- Bake for 11-12 minutes or until the edges appear set. The cookies will look very soft in the center. Remove from the oven. If you find that your cookies didn’t spread much at all, flatten them out with the back of a spoon when you take them out of the oven. If desired, press a few chocolate chips into the tops of the warm cookies. This is only for looks.
- Cool cookies on the baking sheets for at least 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. The longer the cookies cool, the even better they taste! The flavor gets stronger and the texture becomes chewier. I usually let them sit, uncovered, for several hours before serving. Chewiness and pumpkin flavor are even stronger on day 2.
- Cookies stay fresh covered at room temperature for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature, then continue with step 4. Baked cookies freeze well up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Here are my tips for how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Rubber Spatula | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack
- Pumpkin: Squeeze as much of the moisture out of the pumpkin puree as you can before adding it to the cookie dough. I simply squeeze the puree with paper towels. See photo in the post for a visual. This will help produce a less cakey cookie. Less moisture is a good thing here! Measure 6 Tablespoons AFTER the pumpkin has been squeezed/blotted. Do not use pumpkin pie filling.
- Pumpkin Pie Spice: You can find pumpkin pie spice in the baking aisle of most grocery stores or make your own homemade pumpkin pie spice. If you don’t have either and want to use individual spices, use 1/4 teaspoon each: ground ginger, ground nutmeg, ground cloves, and ground allspice. This is in addition to the 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon—you will still add that.
- Chilled Dough: If you are chilling the pumpkin cookie dough for longer than 30 minutes, the cookie dough will likely have to sit on the counter at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before scooping/rolling because it will be quite cold and solid. The amount of time it needs to sit at room temperature depends on how long the dough has chilled. If I chill my cookie dough for around 24 hours, I let it sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.
- Bigger Batch: Cookie recipe can easily be doubled by doubling each ingredient. Chill the cookie dough for 45 minutes.
- Be sure to check out my top 5 cookie baking tips AND these are my 10 must-have cookie baking tools.
Keywords: chocolate chip pumpkin cookies
Would brown butter work in these? I love the flavor that adds to other cookies I’ve made
Hi Kasey, we can’t see why not! Several readers have reported success adding brown butter to these cookies. Let us know if you give it a try!
This is a go to of mine! Love the recipe. I made them last night before bed and let cool and placed in a Tupperware container. I need them for tomorrow lunch for a work event. Should I freeze them today?
Hi Esther, no need to freeze if serving them tomorrow. Enjoy!
Absolutely the best recipe. Chewy, but not cake like.
★★★★★
Just made these with my sons, doubled the recipe to give some to neighbors and made zero modifications. They turned out spendidly! Only minor thing I would add is a tad more salt, but that’s probably just a preference of mine. Perfect fall cookie and super easy to make.
★★★★★
Hi! Thanks so much for this recipe. It’s a hit the first time I tried it. Anyway, can I make it healthier by using a combination of wheat flour and oats? How would I adjust the recipe? Thanks much!
Hi Claire, adding whole wheat flour would make the cookies a bit dense and dry, and adding oats would take some testing as well since it’s not always a 1:1 swap with flour. If you’re looking for an oat-based pumpkin cookie, you might enjoy these brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies or pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. Or, these pumpkin chocolate chip oatmeal bars are a sweet but healthier treat!
This recipe is incredible and so easy to make!!! Love it!
★★★★★
I usually love all of the recipes from Sally’s but I followed this one exactly and the bottoms came out burned at 11 minutes. Any idea why that would be?
★★
Hi Taylor, what type of baking pan are you using? I can’t imagine these cookies burning so quickly at 350°F (177°C). Did you line the pan? Sorry for the trouble!
I love this recipe so much! I was wondering if it will taste as good if I switch the flour to gluten-free flour? Let me know your thoughts and if I need to change up any of the other ingredients if I do so. Thanks!
Hi Sara, we haven’t tested this recipe with gluten free flour, so we’re unsure of the results. Let us know if you do give it a try!
Terrible. Extremely dry!
★
Hi Candace, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. These cookies are quite soft and chewy with so much pumpkin in the dough, so it sounds like it was a matter of the flour. How did you measure? Be sure to spoon and level your flour (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure it’s not over measured. Too much flour can significantly dry out cookies. Over baking can also make cookies dry, too. Hope these tips are helpful!
Howdy, Sally! Big fan with a question. I made the dough for 400 of this cookie for my wedding and it’s living in the freezer well wrapped.
For schedule’s sake I need to bake the cookies the Sunday (October 29) before the wedding and will distribute them on Friday, November 3. Would you recommend keeping the baked cookies individually packaged (2 cookies per plastic bag) in the freezer that week (Sunday – Thursday) then let them thaw in the fridge or room temperature the on Friday OR would you recommend keeping the baked cookies in the fridge Sunday-Thursday and then letting them chill room temp Thursday night/ Friday morning when we’ll distribute them to guests. Your recommendations on sustaining the freshness of baked cookies on a Sunday until that Friday are greatly appreciated!
Hi Ginger, we’d recommend freezing the baked and packages cookies for that amount of time. Hope they’re a hit at your wedding!
Thank you so much, Lexi! I’ll definitely freeze the baked cookies then. Just double checking that once I take them out of the freezer Thursday morning they’ll be good to just keep at room temp until distribution on Friday? I’m so excited for these cookies! They’ll be such a hit 🙂 Just want to make sure I’m preserving their integrity as best as possible.
Hi Ginger, correct—you can take them out of the freezer on Thursday morning and thaw them in the refrigerator OR simply on the counter/at room temperature. Enjoy!
These cookies are my go-to! So delicious and amazing year-round. I do heaping tablespoons for the pumpkin and smash my cookies with a spoon when they come out of the oven.
★★★★★
Before reading reviews, I dove into this recipe with some modifications in mind (just tips or tricks from various youtube vids that I wanted to try) – and after reading reviews am slightly worried about the amount of modifications I’m testing! I was unable to weigh dry ingredients (kitchen scale broke) so I measured by volume but was careful to spoon things in to the measuring cup and level them nicely. I used Bob Red Mill’s bread flour (a hack I’ve seen used for ‘chewier’ cookies), substituted vanilla bean paste for extract, ghiradelli chocolate wafers roughly chopped rather than chips, and browned the butter. I also dry cooked my can of pumpkin puree for about 45 minutes over medium low heat- stirring every few minutes to prevent burning. I figured it would only take 10 or so minutes, but steam kept coming and the consistency was wet so I continued on. I also added my spices during this dry cook to infuse the flavor into the pumpkin more directly. When I called it quits, the entire can had reduced to roughly eight tablespoons of condensed pumpkin spice paste. I kept the extra as a coffee mix-in 🙂
The dough is chilling now and I’ll report back on results if I remember to in the morning!
This is such an easy and quick recipe, so even if my modded experiment is a fail I’ll be returning for a proper go at the recipe as written. Sally never disappoints!
★★★★★
I followed the recipe and these taste okay but the texture is terrible. I’ve baked a lot of cookies in my life and this these are non sense. They feel like uncooked cookies no matter how long they stay in the oven. They will go in the trash as I don’t want anyone to get sick from those. There are much better and easier recipes out there. I would stay away from this one at all cost. Waste of food and ingredients.
★
The BEST pumpkin chocolate chip cookies ever! I followed the instructions to a T. Weighed out the flour, sugar etc in grams. This helps tremendously. Also… Blot, blot, blot that pumpkin! Then when you think you’ve done enough, blot it again! That is the *key to these being chewy and not cakey. I doubled the recipe and let it sit in the fridge 45 minutes like suggested and they came out perfect. I’ll be making these again and again! Thank you, Sally!
★★★★★
Let me tell you – this is the BEST and ONLY pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe you will ever need. Ive been following this recipe for 3 seasons now and it has become a staple at family functions and gatherings with friends. I’m the girl with the best cookies at the party when I make these, people beg for me to make them! Truly so yummy, chewy, and simple to make!! Thank you Sally for this incredible recipe, you are spreading pumpkin happiness everywhere with my family and friends
★★★★★
Tried these the other night for 1st time & most definitely a hit!! Kids have asked me to make them again. Love how soft & chewy they are!! Thank u for such a very amazing yummmmmmmy delicious recipe!!!! Love how it has no eggs also!!!! Time to go make more cookies for my kids & grand babies ❤
★★★★★
Made these today. Very, very good. Nice texture, flavor, and visual appeal. I used a thin dish towel instead of paper towels to squeeze out the liquid from the pumpkin puree.
★★★★★
I had pumpkin puree and some chocolate chips and this was just the recipe. My mom was amazed at how tasty they were and that they were egg free! My aunt is vegan and I was wondering if you could use oil instead of butter?
★★★★★
Hi Emma, if you’re looking for a substitute for the butter, melted coconut oil is best. You want a fat that’s solid at room temperature and liquid when warmed. The flavor will be different, but they’ll still be excellent. Many readers have made this substitution and reported back with great results!
Cookie Contest Winner!
I made these for a cookie bakeoff at work and they took first place!
I have followed this and the chocolate chip cookie recipes to the letter (ok I used chocolate and butterscotch chips) and did sugar and flour by weight. If doing by volume this may be why some said the cookie was not the right texture. Also don’t bake too long. I pull them from the oven the second the look set or slightly browned. (9-11 min in my oven)
★★★★★
These were tasty and hit the spot. Chewy, moist, and flavorful, but not as crisp as I would have hoped for on the edges. I weighed most of the ingredients, especially the dries and the pumpkin. I think that is crucial to get this recipe to come out reliably well. I used Bob’s Red Mill unbleached all-purpose flour, which is pretty high protein and tends to suck up moisture more than other AP flours, so having the flour weight was helpful to prevent dry cookies. I smooshed the dough before and after baking and pressed some extra chips on the tops after baking, too. They were excellent! I really don’t understand all the mean comments on this recipe…I’m guessing they probably measured by volume or just wanted a different kind of cookie.
★★★★
Your recipes are always AMAZING!! I pretty much only use your website for baked goods anymore. I started a little bakery side hustle and have had great success with it, with one exception: some of your recipes don’t make as many cookies as the yield says. This one says 18, but I only got 14 smallish cookies out of it. Not a problem if I’m just baking for myself, but I frequently bake for large amounts of people and need a more accurate assessment of what to expect. I quadrupled the recipe because I needed 60 cookies and I thought this would yield about 70-72, but it barely made 55. Definitely frustrating when I’m on a time crunch and have customers. I don’t even make my cookies big. They are pretty small (about 2.5 inches across after baking).
Hi Debbie, I’m sorry to hear you’re not getting enough cookies out of this recipe! We usually use a medium cookie scoop, which scoops a ball of dough about 1.5 Tablespoons in size, to make these cookies. Other than the size of the cookie dough balls, I’m not sure what could account for the diminished yield.
I followed the recipe very closely and was disappointed that there was not enough pumpkin flavor. I did not let them sit out on the counter for the 2 hour recommendation as the more they cooled the crunchier they became. Not what I was looking for. Other than that they were ok.
★★★