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, pumpkin crumb cake cookies, and pumpkin oatmeal cream pies. 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Hi Sally! This recipe looks awesome — do you think they would turn out ok if I replaced the melted butter with applesauce?
Hi Nelu! We don’t recommend that. The cookies would turn out quite tough if you replaced all the butter.
So delicious! These cookies are perfect, they have a wonderful fall taste with chocolate, not too sweet.
These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies my new fall favorite! Sally, you are the baking Queen! Thanks for another fantastic recipe.
Devoured by family and coworkers! With requests to make them again, these will quickly become a fall tradition. Don’t skip blotting the pumpkin, it really makes a difference! Thanks for the great recipe!
Delish – taste and chewy texture. Not a huge candy pumpkin cookie fan, so these are perfect. And easy! Love that there aren’t any eggs in them – I don’t think this recipe needs it! Hubby and everyone I made these for love them too.
simple and delicious. Made these on Halloween afternoon after scraping out our pumpkin to be carved. Mine may have been a little dry, they cracked some when pressing down and didn’t really spread that much. (I think I actually managed to squeeze out too much liquid from the pumpkin? I found there to be a lot of flour and had to fold with my hands rather than the wooden spoon.) Either way, they didn’t taste dry, they were moist and perfectly chewy. Would definitely recommend. Thanks!
I love these cookies except I could not get them sweet enough with the amount of sugar used here! I ended up using 3/4 a cup of brown sugar and 1/2 a cup of white sugar to get them sweet. Maybe I just had really bitter pumpkin puree or something, but once I adjusted the sugar, they were great!
so amazing. i made these for a halloween party, and people went crazy over them! cant wait to make them again!
This was so good and so easy! I followed you tips and left them out on the cooling rack overnight, and in the morning I drizzled a simple glaze (I remembered to use a clear, imitation vanilla for the color) and then lightly added on some orange sprinkles to the glaze. with the chocolate chip eyes, the drizzle made me think of a mummy, perfect for Halloween! thanks Sally!
Love this recipe! I’m curious, does letting the dough sit overnight before baking let the flavors develop the same as letting the baked cookies sit overnight?
Hi Rey, I feel the flavor very slightly deepens letting the dough sit overnight.
Loved this recipe! I doubled the ingredients and made my cookies extra chewy in size. I used a whole can of pumpkin puree (for doubling the recipe) even though I expected to only use half. I guess I lost some pumpkin puree in the process. The cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices are a good amount to make the cookie stand out. I used Trader Joe’s vegan butter spread and chocolate chips to make it vegan.
I love pumpkin spice flavored baked goods, but have developed a sensitivity to cloves. Is there something that I could substitute instead of just leaving it out? Thanks so much.
Hi Cynthia, you can omit the cloves or increase the ginger, nutmeg, or allspice in its place. Enjoy!
These are some of the best cookies I’ve ever made!!! I LOVE that they’re not too sweet. I’ll be baking them on repeat until spring!
Not sure what happened with these. They didn’t taste very sweet and they fluffed up too much. Maybe it would’ve been better with egg? The cookie dough was bomb though! Next time I think I’ll make cookie dough balls and coat them in orange candy melts. ☺️
Hi Whitney, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Without the egg these should be quite dense and chewy (adding it in would give it a more cakey texture). How did you measure your flour? Be sure to spoon and level (or use a kitchen scale) to ensure the flour isn’t overmeasured. That could be the culprit for a more “fluffy” texture as you mention. Hope this helps for the next batch!
Sally,
You have out done yourself once again!!
I loved your Pumpkin chocolate chip bread with the secret ingredient…orange juice!!
I had to try your pumpkin chocolate chip cookies…Just as delicious…the key is soaking up all that extra liquid from the pumpkin…thank you again
Best texture of any cookie! I was on the fence, because I actually like the more fluffy pumpkin chip cookies, but these were awesome! Chewy and very nice pumpkin flavor. I used dark chocolate chips and they were perfect.
I made these one hour ago and have already eaten one scoop of dough and too cookies. This recipe is absolutely delicious. Both the cookies and the dough are incredibly soft, perfectly sweet and spiced, and it has just the right amount of pumpkin flavor. I will be making these all season long.
This recipe is amazing! So yummy! I also added 2 tablespoons of maple syrup
Unfortunately these turned very doughy ,I did not like the texture of these at all and ended up wasting them. The flavor was good but texture was very odd.
As soon as fall rolls around, my family starts dropping big hints that it’s time to make these cookies. I’ll be making a double batch later this week so there’s plenty to leave with my son at college when we visit next weekend. Goodies from home are always a huge hit.
Not a favorite. I was in a rush so I didn’t chill the dough and I tried to make cookies smaller so I would have more of them. They were underwhelming for me and for what I needed. There’s nothing wrong with the recipe itself, it just didn’t have an appealing color or wow factor flavor for me so I won’t be making these again. I have made a LOT of Sally’s sweet and also savory recipes and all but 2 have been fantastic – for me. Thank you so much for all the great recipes!
Why did my cookies come out puffy? Super soft but almost muffin like. Any ideas?
Hi Nohemy, that soft, muffin-like texture comes from the moisture in the pumpkin—blotting as much moisture from the pumpkin helps create a chewier, denser cookie. If you make these again, making sure the pumpkin is blotted of its moisture will definitely help. Thanks for giving them a try!
Just tried it and my dough was definitely dry and crumbly (about 4200 elevation here). I thought I might have incorrectly weighed the pumpkin, but I triple checked. Ended up adding about 2 more tablespoons of pumpkin and they turned out great. I’d recommend starting with what the recipe requires and adding a little at a time until the dough comes together.
I am so bad at making cookies, I tried chilling the dough, using room temp butter, and tonnes of things. But thus recipe was a surprise!I am shocked at how cool these turned out to be. I ran out of pumpkin puree,so I added fresh grated pumpkin (I cooked it a little) before adding. OMG!I am a prp at baking cookies now! Thank you so much, Sally!
Is anyone cooking in a high elevation? I’m scared if I blot the pumpkin purée everything will dry out too much
I made these at 4,500ft and me and my family loved them!
Just a note that the recipe text itself says to flatten with a spoon after baking, but the blog post above it says to flatten them before. Doing it before makes them look a lot better than doing it afterwards- maybe this should be corrected. Definitely appreciate the tip to blot pumpkin and weigh it after you’ve done so- I was amazed at how much liquid came out and how much it shrunk down.
Is it possible to make 1 giant cookie with this recipe? How may degrees and how long have i to cook it? Thanks!
Hi Isabella, we haven’t tried it, so aren’t sure what to recommend in terms of how much to reduce the recipe or increase the bake time. We do have a few other giant cookie recipes on the site you might enjoy, like this giant chocolate cookie and this giant monster M&M cookie, or feel free to play around with the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe and see what works!
I made these yesterday with cinnamon chips and rolled them in cinnamon sugar before baking. They are the pumpkin cookie I wish I tried sooner. Blotting the pumpkin was a game changer, and loved that I didn’t need eggs. They came together fast and loved the short chill time.
Sooooo good! I used Cinnamon and ginger as my spice, and my pumpkin puree was cold….I think I could have made balls with that texture. Dough chilled for 1 5 hours. They keep the shape they’re baked in. I am keeping this easy recipe! I almost always have these ingredients on hand!
Recipe is delicious. I couldn’t believe no eggs in it.