Soft Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting and a sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice to finish them off. The perfect fall treat!
Try these next: Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, Pumpkin Créme Brûleé, and Healthy Pumpkin Bread!
Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting
One of the most popular pumpkin recipes on my site is my soft-baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies—they’re delicious and impossible to resist. But if you’re like my son and not a big fan of chocolate, you need a pumpkin cookie that’s just as good, without the chocolate.
That’s how these cookies came to be! My son loves cream cheese frosting, and I knew these cookies would make his day. What I didn’t expect was for them to become my new favorite cookie too. They’re that good!
They’re thick, chewy, and full of the best flavor and spice.
Ingredients
- Flour: Spoon into measuring cup and level off for an accurate measurement.
- Baking soda and baking powder: Help the cookies rise and stay soft.
- Cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice: Adjust the spice to your flavor preference.
- Salt: Don’t skip it! It makes the other flavors pop!
- Brown and white sugar: Sweeten the cookies and add moisture.
- Unsalted butter: Use softened butter for smooth mixing.
- Canned pumpkin: Use pure pumpkin, not pumpkin pie filling.
- Egg: Binds ingredients in pumpkin cookies with cream cheese frosting together.
- Vanilla extract: Use pure vanilla extract for a richer flavor.
Cream Cheese Frosting
Over the years, I’ve tested browned butter, maple, and glaze frostings for my Pumpkin Cookies, but cream cheese frosting is the undeniable favorite with family and friends!
- Cream cheese and butter: Here are some tips on bringing them to room temp.
- Powdered sugar: Makes the frosting sweet and smooth.
- Salt: Just a little to balance the sweet.
- Vanilla: Adds more flavor.
- Optional pumpkin pie spice: Make your own pumpkin pie spice or grab from the store.
How To Make Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting
- Mix Dry Ingredients: Combine all dry ingredients in one bowl.
- Cream Butter and Sugars: In another bowl, mix together wet ingredients.
- Combine Mixtures: Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
- Scoop Dough: Place the dough onto a lined baking sheet and flatten slightly.
- Bake: Cook in a preheated oven until just set.
- Prepare Frosting: Beat together cream cheese, butter, and sugar until smooth.
- Frost Cookies: Frost cooled cookies and enjoy. Store leftovers in the fridge.
Storage
Can You Freeze Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting?
Yes, but it’s best to freeze the dough, not the baked cookies. Drop dough balls onto a sheet pan, freeze until solid, then store in an airtight container or bag with parchment between layers for up to 3 months.
Baked pumpkin cookies (unfrosted) will last 3-4 days in an airtight container at room temperature or up to a week in the fridge.
Don’t freeze the cream cheese frosting; make it fresh when ready to serve.
More Amazing Pumpkin Treats
- Pumpkin Granola great on a yogurt bowl
- Pumpkin Cheesecake Bars with a streusel topping
- Healthy Pumpkin Bread readers favorite
- Pumpkin Carrot Cake with cream cheese frosting
- Pumpkin Overnight Oats prep in minutes
Pumpkin Cookies With Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- Parchment paper or silicone baking mat
- Mixers electric or stand
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2-1/2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1-1/2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup light brown sugar lightly packed
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter softened, not melted
- 1 cup canned pumpkin not pumpkin pie filling
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 4 ounces cream cheese softened
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pumpkin pie spice optional
Instructions
- Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat to avoid burned cookie bottoms. Preheat oven to 350℉.
- Add flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt to a large bowl; whisk to combine and set aside.
- In a medium bowl, cream together butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. Add 1 cup pumpkin, egg, and vanilla. Beat until mixture is creamy. Add in dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Avoid over-mixing.
- Optionally, chill dough: Cover tightly and chill dough for 30 minutes up to 10 hours. Chilling is not necessary but makes dough easier to work with and intensifies flavors.
- Use a 1 tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop balls of dough and place them onto the lined sheet pan. Try to smooth or round the balls, but it's okay if they're a bit bumpy (chill in the fridge for additional time if needed for easier rolling). Leave 2 inches of room for each cookie (I only bake 8–10 cookies at a time) and flatten balls of dough slightly.
- Bake for 8-12 minutes (9 minutes is perfect for my oven!), watching carefully to avoid overbaking. I like these slightly underbaked and soft, but the tops shouldn’t be shiny/wet looking at all. Remove and allow cookies to stand for another 3–5 minutes on the sheet pan before removing to a wire cooling rack.
- Meanwhile, make frosting. In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the room-temperature (not melted) cream cheese and butter until creamy, about 2 minutes, at medium-high speed. Add powdered sugar, salt, and vanilla. Beat until soft and creamy. Avoid over-beating or you’ll get whipped frosting.
- Generously frost cooled cookies and if desired, sprinkle them with a little pumpkin pie spice.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Do you think I could add white chocolate chips to this recipe?
Sure! 🙂
Just made these. Used apple pie spice instead of pumpkin spice. anyway they turned out amazing
Sounds awesome! Thank you!
If i were to make the batter a few days before i need the cookies for an event how do i store it?
I would recommend making the cookies and freezing them. I don’t think this batter would sit well for an extended period of time unfortunately.
I plan on making these tomorrow.. it looks like we cannot save the raw dough or freeze it for later ?? only freeze cookies that have been baked but not frosted correct
Right! 🙂 Enjoy!
Made these to take to work one day and ended up having to make another batch when I got home for my husband and I. These are the perfect cookie for fall or any time of year, really! Such a great recipe!
So happy to hear that! Thanks for the comment and review Annie 🙂
I made these tonight and they all flattened out and were a thin and not thick chewy cookie. What did I do wrong?
Did you change any of the ingredients or process? Did you by chance accidentally use an entire can of pumpkin instead of the 1 cup called for? (A common mistake in pumpkin recipes!)
very good pumpkin cookies. I added raisins for pumpkin-raisin cookies 🙂 Super tasty and soft. I will make these again!
Sounds delicious!! Glad you enjoyed these cookies 🙂
These are my new fall go-to cookies! They’ve been a huge hit at parties and family get togethers (if they make it past the kiddos and hubby…and me!)Thank you!
Yay!! Love hearing that! Thank you for the comment 🙂
Yesterday I made these cookies and doubled the batch which i am glad i did. I posted a picture of them on facebook and my family came running over lol. I took some to work today and they were a major hit and not everyone got a cookie. They all loved them. Tonight I made another batch to take to work and my daughter wants to take some to school to. Very delicious ? I will not make any other pumpkin cookie. I cooked a pie pumpkin down instead of can pumpkin. Thank you so so much for the recipe. The best one ever ? Thank you again
SO thrilled you’ve loved these; thanks for your kind words!!
I made these yesterday. I posted a picture of them on Facebook and my family came running over. Luckily i had doubled the batch. I took some to work today and got highly compliments. Not everyone got a cookie so tonight I made another batch. Very delicious. I however cooked a pie pumpkin down instead of can. I will not make any other pumpkin cookies besides these ? Thank you so much for recipe. I love love love these cookies
So happy to hear it!! Thank you for the comment Jodi 🙂
Thanks for this recipe! Been looking for a good soft cookie recipe for my sister’s birthday. She lives anything pumpkin! I will be making it tomorrow, but can you confirm the # of eggs? You wrote 1 but in the picture above, I see 2 eggs. Thanks!
Sorry for the confusion! 1 large egg 🙂
Thank you so much Ms. Chelsea I’ll be making these. I was looking for a chewy pumkin cookie recipe such as this. I’m gonna try a glaze with with milk instead of the cream cheese for a lower cal count.????
3rd time making these cookies! Love em!!!!
LOVE hearing that! Thank you so much for the comment Morgan! 🙂
I’m late to the comment game here but I’m trying out chilling the dough for an hour to see if I can get the texture to be a little more lofty. The same idea applies to chocolate chip cookies to why the heck not, right?