A classic fall treat, these easy pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are on the chewier side and feature a great balance of warm spice flavors.
Pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are right next to pumpkin bread with maple syrup in my mind as a quintessential fall dessert. But people sure have a lot of thoughts about what constitutes the best kind of pumpkin cookie.
With all the moisture that pumpkin puree brings, it's all but impossible to produce a pumpkin cookie that's as chewy as a good old chocolate chip cookie or a ginger snickerdoodle. And many recipes go the opposite way and produce cookies so cake-y they almost resemble muffin tops.
This post has been on the blog for nearly 9 years (!) but got a big revamp in 2022. I was curious to see if I could move these cookies closer to the chewy side, and after some experimenting I think they're just right!
Always soft (thanks to the pumpkin), these cookies have a nice chew to them without becoming too fudgy or tender.
Reasons to Love This Recipe
- Thanks to a few intentional ingredients, these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are on the chewier side versus the cakier side, which is frequently found with pumpkin cookie recipes.
- This recipe doesn't require an electric mixer, rather a hand whisk and a wooden spoon will do the trick.
- While a quick chill is all that's needed for puffier cookies, this recipe has lots of wiggle room built in for your convenience as they can also chill overnight (or longer).
- Just like in fudgy pumpkin brownies, pumpkin and chocolate joined together (especially dark chocolate)? A delicious combination.
Recipe Ingredients
- Pumpkin puree: Use canned 100% pumpkin puree. Do not use canned pumpkin pie filling, which is pre-sweetened and pre-spiced.
- Sugars: A higher percentage of brown sugar used vs. granulated sugar leads to chewier cookies.
- Butter: Using melted butter vs. softened butter also produces chewier cookies.
- Spices: Written out by individual spice in the recipe card in case you don't have pumpkin pie spice blend on hand, this includes lots of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
- Chocolate chips: Semi-sweet or dark chocolate both work great (I'm partial to a blend.) In place of chips a chopped up bar of chocolate also works.
Step-by-Step Instructions
- Melt the butter and whisk it together with the sugars until no lumps remain. Add the pumpkin and vanilla extract and whisk again until thick and smooth.
- In a separate bowl whisk together the dry ingredients.
- Pour the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until just combined (no flour streaks remain).
- Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Chill the dough for at least one hour, up to one day. When ready to bake, shape cookie dough balls using a one-and-a-half tablespoon cookie scoop and place them on parchment paper lined cookie sheets.
- Bake at 350°F for 12 minutes, or until the bottoms have browned and the top surface is dry. Let them cool for several minutes on the cookie sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Recipe Tips and Tricks
- Right when these pumpkin chocolate chip cookies come out of the oven they'll look very tall and puffy. However as they cool they'll come down and form a more crinkly (and chewy!) appearance.
- When baking cookies it's best to use fresh (i.e. cool) baking sheets for each batch as hot sheets can cause the cookies to spread more than you'd like. However I do reuse sheets of parchment paper as they don't retain heat.
- Let them cool completely before storing. Otherwise the heat will cause condensation to become trapped in the air-tight container and mess with the texture.
Recipe FAQs
This is correct: there are no eggs in this recipe. I tested this recipe using just egg yolk (one and two), as this is said to produce chewier cookies, but found it just to be too much moisture when paired with up the pumpkin puree, even with adding extra flour. It produced a cookie with the texture of slightly underdone pumpkin bread, which was definitely not what I was going for.
Once entirely cooled, store cookies at room temperature in an air-tight container for 3-4 days. As they're a softer cookie (they don't harden or crisp as they're stored), I recommend reusing some of the parchment paper by placing it between cookie layers so they don't stick together.
Related Recipes
If you’ve enjoyed this recipe, I’d love for you to leave a star rating in the recipe card and/or a comment review below!
Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter melted
- ⅔ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup pumpkin puree
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 ¾ cups (217g) all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ⅛ teaspoon ground allspice
- Pinch of ground cloves
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips semi-sweet, dark, or a mix
Instructions
- Melt butter and pour it into a mixing bowl. Add brown and granulated sugars and whisk very well until thickened and no lumps remain. Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla extract and whisk again well until smooth.
- In a separate mixing bowl, add flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves. Whisk to combine evenly.
- Add the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients and stir until combined fully and no clumps or streaks of flour remain. Stir in the chocolate chips.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for at least one hour, up to overnight, to chill.
- Once chilled, preheat oven to 350°F (177°C) and line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper. Take the bowl out of the fridge for about 10 minutes to slightly warm up so the cookies are easier to scoop.
- Using a 1 ½-Tablespoon capacity cookie scoop, form rounded cookie dough balls and place them at least two inches apart from one another on the lined sheets.
- Bake for 12 minutes, or until the top surface is set and the bottom has browned. The cookies will appear very puffed up as they come out of the oven, but they will deflate some as they cool.
- Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack so they can cool completely.
Notes
- Make sure to use canned pumpkin puree and not pumpkin pie filling, which has been sweetened and spiced. The cans will look very similar.
- Don't reuse the same baking sheet for each batch of cookies, as the hot pan will cause the cookies to spread too much. You can reuse sheets of parchment paper as they don't retain heat.
- Once completely cooled, store cookies at room temperature in air-tight containers or bags for several days. I recommend reusing the parchment paper by placing it between layers so the cookies don't stick together. They can also be frozen this way.
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as an estimate. As it can vary due to many factors (brands used, quantities, etc.), we cannot guarantee its accuracy.
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Rachel says
Hi! Can I replace the spices with pumpkin pie spice instead? If so would it be 2 3/8 tsp? Thanks!
Alyssa says
Hi Rachel, yes you can! I'd say you could eyeball somewhere between 2 1/4 and 2 1/2 tsp to make the measuring easier. I hope you enjoy if you give them a try!