These pumpkin cookies are perfect for a snack for dunking into you favorite hot drink! They taste so good with a nice chewy texture and pumpkin pie spice. They are also loaded with chocolate chips which always makes anything better if you ask me. There are many variations of pumpkin cookies out there and they are all tasty – if you are looking for a no fuss, nicely spiced, just enough pumpkin flavor, chewy not cakey pumpkin cookie you came to the right pace. No need to pull out the mixer for these either – all you need is a bowl whisk an a spatula or wooden spoon and maybe a little bit of patience as I do recommend chilling the dough for a bit before baking for the optimal texture. If you prefer your cookies nuttier feel free to adjust add-ins to suit your taste by adding chopped pecans or walnuts or even seem cranberries or raisins.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ingredients:
- BUTTER: I used unsalted butter because it makes it easier to control the amount of salt in recipe.
- WHITE SUGAR: You can use granulated white sugar or organic cane sugar.
- BROWN SUGAR: I use light brown sugar in this recipe. The combination of white sugar and brown sugar give these cookies their distinct texture.
- FLOUR: Is the main ingredient in cookies. I recommend using an unbleached, all-purpose flour to make these chocolate chunk cookies. You could definitely make them gluten free with a good quality flour like Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 gluten free baking flour.
- PUMPKIN: You will need pure pumpkin puree not pumpkin pie filling which is full of sugar and spices. It adds plenty of moisture to these cookies.
- SPICES: I chose to use ground cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice because I always have it on hand but if you don’t what is a substitution for pumpkin pie spice? I recommend making your own pumpkin spice by blending ground Ginger, Cloves, Allspice & Nutmeg – approx ½ teaspoon of each or adjust amounts to taste
- CHOCOLATE CHIPS: I like to use semi-sweet chocolate chips but you can use any ones you like or a mixture of bittersweet and either semi sweet or milk chocolate but you could use one or the other.
- EGG YOLK: There is just one egg yolk in this recipe for structure and texture – make sure it’s room temperature before adding to the batter.
- BAKING SODA: For leavening
- VANILLA: A definite must in this recipe – they just won’t be the same without it for that delicious flavour vanilla adds to them
- VARIATIONS/EXTRA ADD INS: Feel free to toss in some chopped pecans or walnuts if you would like a nuttier variation of these cookies, or you could also add in some dried cranberries, or raisins. For vegan version – you can use melted coconut oil or vegan butter and a flax egg or egg substitute.
How To Make Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Like I said before these don’t require a mixer or any special tools other than a bowl, whisk, wooden spoon or spatula and a cookie scoop. Here are the simple steps involved in making these tasty cookies:
- Melt the butter and allow it to cool slightly while you prepare the other steps. For a variation you could Brown the butter – browning the butter gives these cookies extra flavour but they will still be absolutely delicious made with melted and slightly cooled butter. The melted butter is the secret to the chewiness of these cookies
- Whisk together you dry ingredients
- Whisk together the melted and room temperature butter with the sugars then add the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla and whisk for a minute until smooth and ribbony
- Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually
- Mix or fold in the Chocolate chips
- Chill Dough in the fridge or freezer
- Scoop dough onto prepared pans and bake
- Cool & enjoy!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Baking Tips
- Don’t over bake. These cookies will take 9 to 12 minutes to bake. As soon as the tops are lightly browned and cracks start forming, take them out of the oven. The cookies will continue cooking on the hot sheet tray, so don’t be worried if they still feel a bit soft
- Be sure to allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring baked cookies to a cooling rack or wire rack so they don’t fall apart as your transfer them.
- For that bakery style look (or Instagram picture perfect worthy look), and the trick to chocolate puddles, press a few chocolate chips on top of each cookie dough ball before baking and a couple right after they come out of the oven. You can also sprinkle them with flaky sea salt. Which I always love to do.
- The pan you bake these cookies on definitely matters – I use heavy duty light coloured non stick baking sheets which really distribute the heat evenly. Stainless steal pans will cause some spreading and possible uneven baking. Never use dark colored pans to bake cookies – they tend to over bake cookies
- Try to measure your ingredients carefully to prevent a dry crumbly cookie and also do not over mix the dough because it will affect the texture of the cookies.
- Have you tried the pan banging method for cookies – this gives your cookies extra crinkles. This is optional but at the 10 minute mark I take the pan out of the oven give it a tap or two on the countertop then place it back in the oven to finish off baking for the remaining 1-2 minutes. This will cause your cookies to spread slightly more just an FYI
- Do you want more uniform looking cookies – sometimes no matter how hard you try even when you measure your your dough balls carefully you will get uneven looking cookies and that is normal especially when you have all the chips in the dough. A very quick fix is to use a small rubber spatula and just gently tuck in or gently press in uneven edges with it as soon as the cookies are out of the oven and still warm and moldable.
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies Make Ahead, Storage & Freezing
- MAKE AHEAD: If wrapped tightly in plastic, the dough can be stored in the refrigerator for several days before baking. If too firm to scoop, let sit at room temperature for 15 minutes and try again.
- STORAGE & FREEZING: The cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Freezing Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Can I freeze the cookie dough and bake it later? Yes. This dough can indeed be frozen. Scoop it into equally-sized balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 1-2 hours. Once they’re frozen, store the cookie dough balls in an airtight container or ziplock bag for up to 3 months.
- How do I bake the cookies from frozen? Place the frozen dough balls on a parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake at the same temperature. They’ll need 1-2 minutes extra to bake fully.
- What if the cookie dough is too hard to scoop after refrigerating overnight? If your cookie dough is too firm to scoop after chilling, leave it at room temperature to warm up for 10-15 minutes. I usually find this happens after an overnight chill or longer than 3-4 hours- and I usually take it out of the fridge while I’m preheating the oven and find that that is enough time to make it scoop-able
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