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
Oh my goodness! These are so good!! I used fresh pumpkin I had just roasted and pureed and let it sit in a bowl lined with paper towels while I prepped the rest of the ingredients. These turned out perfect – I made a double batch and am so glad I did! My boyfriend is a chocolate chip cookie fanatic but picky about texture. He even said they are really good! Yay! Thank you for all of the wonderful recipes!!
Really great cookies! Flavor definitely gets better as time goes on. Overall great recipe, mine didn’t expand almost at all so they make for great little bite sized cookies!
I had high hopes. They tasted like sugary raw cookie dough. They will be tossed
Hello! I would love to make this recipe and was wondering if they would work as cookies bars–baked in an 8×8 or 9×9 square tin. Do you think this is possible? Thank you!
Hi A, Absolutely. Use a 9-inch square baking pan. Follow the baking instructions for chocolate chip cookie bars. The bake time may be a few minutes shorter, but keep your eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I would like to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bars in a 9×13 pan. Directions for a 9″ square pan are to follow the chocolate chip cookie bar instructions. That recipe says to make a 9×13 to follow the M&M cookie bar recipe and swap out the M&Ms for chocolate chips. Obviously that would not work since I want pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bars. Is it possible to make pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bars in a 9 x 13 pan? If so, can you please tell me how? Thank you!
Hi R, for a 9×13-inch pan, you can double this recipe and then use the baking times from the M&M Cookie Bars as a guide. Keep a close eye on them and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
Awesome. I made mine much smaller (about 32 cookies) and baked 9 minutes. Will be a go to.
Taste is golden! Thank you! Cookies kept sticking to my silpat though. Strange, never happened before. Ads also kept restarting my phone so even if you toggle to “cook mode” it’s useless! Otherwise gold! Thank you
FAV fall recipe. I make it w brown butter and they are to die for. Everyone asks me to bring these to every event all year round
These cookies are so moist and so good! They taste like pumpkin pie in cookie form
They were delicious but a little too soft for me. Next time I’ll squeeze out the pumpkin purée
Not a huge pumpkin fan here – but gave it a go and was unimpressed when I ate one 5 mins out of the oven. HOWEVER!…. like the recipe mentions – IT GETS SO MUCH BETTER THE LONGER YOU LEAVE IT.
To the point that when i baked the leftover dough, I even picked out the chocolate because the cookie itself was so good after letting it sit.
Sally I have been using you exclusively for all my baking recipes. You never let me down! We love the bakery style chocolate chip and now I will be adding pumpkin chip to my favorites. I will absolutely be getting your book ❤️ thank you thank you!!
Hello! I watched the YouTube video for this recipe and it has a few more spices added then written down recipe? What do you suggest?
Hi Janelle, you can use pumpkin pie spice (a blend) or the individual spices – see Notes after the recipe for details!
I was foolish to question THE Sally! You guys always have everything so well layed out and clear. Must’ve brezzed right over it! Thank you!
Instead of pumpkin pie spice, I use garam marsala. Gives a slightly more complex flavor.
Loved this recipe but felt like it needed more leavening. I am curious why you didnt add egg? Also I have a dairy free friend who would love these, what would you sub for butter?
Hi Shaylee, pumpkin replaces the egg in the recipe – see the post above for details. You could try using a vegan butter but we’re unsure of the results. Let us know what you try!
Hi Sally draining the liquid from the pumpkin puree was a challenge. I didn’t squueze enough to resah 6 tablespoons. It got really messy. WhT about addi g a little more flour or something?
Hi Patti! You can certainly try adding a little more flour. The cookies will end up a little more cakey (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!).
Excellent! easy, quick, delicious. Make-ahead, eggless, and I made with non-dairy “butter” (I won’t name the brand as I am not advertising, just sayin’ … if you are serving a vegan option, this can work!) I also substituted pecans for choc chips (just not a big choc eater myself.) I was making treats for a gathering and these were perfect. Clearly communicated through notes and step-by-step instructions. Great for non-experts like me. Thank you, Sally!
Very good. Baked in 12 minutes. I would say they are primarily a chocolate flavor with a hint of “Something else.” Enough of a hint of something to keep you eating more, wondering what it is. Subtle, not in-your-face fall flavor. Easy to make. I actually made this on the same day as Pumpkin Coffee Cake with Crumb Topping, which was a great way to have no leftovers and use the entire can of pumpkin.
I made this on Sunday and it’s now Thursday and they are just as soft! Absolutely love this recipe
So yummy and gewy. Doubled and turned out great.
Can you use white chocolate chips instead?
Absolutely!
These cookies are delicious!!! Due to family allergies and personal preference, I did end up making quite a few changes along the way. You created an amazing base recipe – and for that I am extremely grateful. Thanks. 🙂
First, I browned the butter to increase the flavor (due to other swap-outs needed for allergies). This also decreased the moisture content in the cookies to ensure a chewier end result.
Second, I used less sugar than what was called for in the original recipe – all white because a family member is allergic to molasses/brown sugar.
Third, I added date syrup to make up for the lost molasses flavoring.
Fourth, I used extra cinnamon as a family member cannot handle ginger, nutmeg, all spice, or cloves…
Fifth, I used King Arthur’s gluten free measure for measure flour and swapped out some for old fashioned oats to provide a bit of extra chew.
Sixth, I added an egg back in because gluten free baking requires a bit of extra structure.
I think that about covers it. Oh! I also found I do not need to refrigerate these before baking due to the different ingredients I used. They did not spread much at all to be completely honest. I got 16 cookies out of the batch I made – baked for 11 minutes at 350°F. The semi sweet chocolate chips were a perfect addition. <3
Are there any adjustments I should make for baking them at high altitude (6,500 ft)?
Hi Lee, I wish we could help, but have no experience baking at high altitude. Some readers have found this chart helpful: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/learn/high-altitude-baking.html
Sally you’ve done it again!! These cookies are SO GOOD. My 12 year old and I made them last night in between homework tasks and they were super easy. We made a dozen regular sized and then she made a 6 7 cookie out of the rest They are soft, chewy, a little spicy, and delicious. Your recipes are always my go-to!!
I so agree with you — most pumpkin chocolate chip cookies are too cakey. These have a lovely chew, a mouth feel like regular chocolate chip cookies. And the spices are perfect! They will be a permanent part of my fall baking going forward.
We are so happy to read this, Nancy! Thanks for giving these cookies a try!
Question-How much do you blot the pumpkin? I am wondering if I blotted too much, because my batter doesn’t look as liquidity as the video.
Thank you.
Hi Becky, you’ll want to blot out some (but not all) of the pumpkin’s moisture. The picture in the post should be a helpful visual. We hope you enjoy the cookies!
When I made them, I strained my pumpkin puree through a very fine mesh stainless steel skimmer just by gently pressing the puree into the mesh with my fingers and a LOT of water came out (several tablespoons), to the point that the pumpkin puree left was somewhat paste-like in consistency It took basically an entire strained can of puree to get 6 tbsp of the solids. This made the wet mixed ingredients pretty thick and paste-like, almost like the texture of whipped butter. Everything still turned out fine, so I think it would be hard to reduce the moisture by too much! The cookies are soft and taste great! I did still refrigerate for half an hour before scooping them out.
This recipe is definitely a keeper! It avoided the cake-like texture of others I’ve tried.
Just perfect. Thank you for sharing this delicious recipe.
Greetings from Greece
These were the best pumpkin chocolate chip cookies i’ve ever made! Im definitely coming back to make more!
What are the estimated calories for these cookies?
Hello! How much of a can of pumpkin puree does this recipe use? Trtying to figure out if I will have leftover puree that I will need to find a use for. Thanks!
Hi Rebecca, the recipe calls for 6 tablespoons AFTER the pumpkin has been squeezed/blotted. See the recipe note! You’ll want to find another recipe that also calls for squeezed/blotted pumpkin puree.
Hi Rebecca,
I’ve measured it out and with the blotting method is equivalent to 3 times the recipe. I used a 15oz can of pumpkin purée.
Hope this helps!
Wonderful recipe.
I swapped the brown/white sugar quantities as I prefer the flavour of darker sugars.
Great way to use up excess pumpkin
I made these today, replaced all the oil and milk with greek yogurt and a splash of heavy cream (was out of oil and milk) and they tuned out great. Might add chopped nuts next time and more ginger. Seriously these are yummy and really hard to stop munching on. Not too sweet.
These pumpkin chocolate chip cookies look absolutely delicious! I love how moist and chewy they seem. Perfect for fall or any time of the year when you’re craving something sweet. If you’re looking for another treat to add to your festive spread, the Father’s Day Concha would make a great addition.