These pumpkin cookies are soft and chewy with a balance of spices to perfectly capture those warm flavors for a cool fall day.
Fall is in the air, the leaves are on the ground, and I am overly excited about Halloween a month too early. But just because it’s too early to be excited about Halloween doesn’t mean I can’t give in to one of fall’s most famous flavors: pumpkin! I originally came across the idea of making pumpkin cookies when I was trying to figure out what to do with the remaining pumpkin puree.
Cookies are my go-to fix for any extra ingredient (within the realm of reason… mostly…), and once the idea was in my head, it just stuck there. Since I decided to use pumpkin as my base. I wanted to really lean into the fall flavors. I thought that brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg would be the perfect complements to the pumpkin. So maybe I ended up leaning more toward a pumpkin spice cookie.
Check out the Make section of MCG for more fun recipes like desserts and savory dishes.
Ingredients
The core of the pumpkin cookie is, as I said earlier, pumpkin puree. I think this is a great use for any extra puree on hand after making other dishes. I also stuck with the cookie classics like butter, sugar, salt, vanilla extract, and all-purpose flour. It was too hard to decide between baking soda and baking powder, so I went with a little bit of both.
Process
Making the Dough
I started by making cookie dough for the pumpkin cookies. Making the dough a day ahead of baking really helps bring out the cookie flavors. It’s my preferred method when I have the time to wait. The first ingredients to go into the mixer were the butter and both sugars. Creaming them together is an important step for most cookies. And I have found the best way to do this is for me to walk away for a little bit and let the mixer do its work.
I stopped the mixer and added the egg yolks, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla extract. Then it was time to mix some more, after doing a quick scrape down of the edges of the bowl. The butter likes to stick to the sides, so it’s important to make sure everything is in the mix. These new ingredients will make the batter become all cream,y but it’s still missing what gives the cookie rigidity.
The last step is adding the flour, baking powder, and baking soda. First, I combined these three ingredients in a bowl to the side. This was mainly because there was too much flour to add in one batch. And to really ensure the even mixture, having these powders mixed ahead of time just helps ensure this. After all the flour is added to the bowl, it’s time to stick the dough in the refrigerator to chill.
Shaping, Rolling, and Baking
The dough for the pumpkin cookies needs to chill for at least one hour. I prefer overnight as it brings out more flavor and gives the butter more time to solidify. Before pulling the pumpkin cookie dough out of the refrigerator, I gave the oven some time to preheat. Then I pulled out the dough and started to shape it into balls.
I did think that giving the cookie dough balls a roll in the cinnamon sugar would help give them a bit more flavor as well. And some texture. The sugar and cinnamon were mixed in a small bowl to allow for the rolling of the dough. Each coated dough ball was placed on the baking tray about 1 to 1 ½ inches apart.
Finally, it was time to bake. Each tray of cookies needs to go into the oven for about twelve to fourteen minutes. It depends on the baking shelf and the size of the cookies. I kept a close eye on each one to make sure I could find that space between under and overcooked. It’s a smaller window than I would like.
Once baked, I let the cookies cool down on the baking sheet for a few minutes before switching them to a cooling rack and letting them cool completely.
Reflections
I really love these cookies; they have a complex flavor that makes them irresistible while staying familiar and comforting. The mixture of spices complements the pumpkin so well. Although I did decide to buy some pumpkin puree to only make cookies… And I ended up with a lot of cookies. Which I didn’t realize was possible. But having three plus batches of pumpkin cookies did turn into an overwhelming number of cookies.
Lessons
The Benefits of Scraping
I am not someone who scrapes down the bowl religiously. And I often wish I were that type of person. Making sure all of the ingredients can be incorporated evenly into the dough is very important. The other benefit of using a scraper can come into play when adding the flour.
A large amount of flour in the bowl will create a dust cloud of flour when starting to mix. The best way around this is to use the spatula to wet the flour first. It doesn’t need to be fully incorporated. Just enough so that the flour stays inside the bowl once the mixer turns on
recipe
Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- ½ Cup Unsalted Butter softened
- ½ Cup Sugar
- 1 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- ⅓ Cup Pumpkin Puree
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 2 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- ¼ Teaspoon Nutmeg
- ½ Teaspoon Ginger
- 2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 ⅔ Cup All-Purpose Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Cinnamon Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Cinnamon
- 2 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 2 Tablespoon Sugar
Instructions
- In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar.
- Add egg yolks, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined, scraping down the sides as needed.
- In a small bowl, combine all-purpose, baking soda, and baking powder.
- In batches, add the flour mixture to the large bowl and mix until fully combined.
- Chill for a minimum of 1 hour to overnight. Longer chill time is better.
- Pre-heat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit.
- In a small bowl, mix the cinnamon, brown sugar, and sugar for the cinnamon sugar. Roll out the dough into 1 ½ tablespoon balls and roll in the mixture.
- Set dough balls on the baking sheet about 1 ½ inches apart from each other.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes.
- Let cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to the wire rack and letting them cool completely.
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