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.
Really creative things put in this blog, I like this blog.
Thank you! 🙂
Has anyone tried to half this recipe? I only have 1/2 cup pumpkin. Should I omit the egg or maybe just add a yolk? I really need these cookies this morning!!!!!
Absolutely delicious!
Thanks Rhonda! 🙂
Delicious! My oven took about 8 1/2 – 9 minutes to bake them fully. I added some chocolate chip to a portion of the batter, too; they just had to bake a little longer. Super easy to make, and they turned out wonderful. I found that a good indicator if they were cooked all the way through is a slightly golden brown bottom (not to be confused with a dark brown). I didn’t have enough cream cheese, so I made half a batch of frosting instead of the full batch and I had enough frosting for all of them (sans a few, I wanted to leave some frosting-free, but I would’ve had enough frosting had I wanted to frost them). The frosting wasn’t overly buttery or sweet, and the pumpkin spice on top is a nice touch. I’m definitely making these again (especially since my family loved them).
I’m so happy to hear this! Thanks so much Ashley! 🙂
Soo good! Made them and I literally had to give them away to my sister to avoid eating it all myself. Lol I was curious- would I be able to make the frosting in advance? And how far in advance do you think if refrigerated? Thank you!
I’m so happy to hear this Susana! Yes you can absolutely make the frosting in advance! It lasts for up to a week in the fridge in an airtight container. Just make sure to set it out a little bit before frosting so it can come to room temperature to frost easily! 🙂
Soo good! Made them and I literally had to give them away to my sister to avoid eating it all myself. Lol I was curious- would I be able to make the frosting in advance? And how far in advance do you think if refrigerated? Thank you!
Looks delicious…here in the Netherlands we don’t have canned pumpkin…can i use fresh pumpkin?
I used a jumbo egg instead of a large, but the rest I measured out the same. Ended up with cookie sized pumpkin mini breads.
They were still super delicious, and I’m actually pretty fond of this texture. I’ll have to make these again for the upcoming holidays.
Yay! So happy you enjoyed! Thanks Chris! 🙂
These were an absolute hit at my bachelorette girls night. People kept raving about them! I would describe these as similar to the pumpkin muffies at Panera but miniature. Next time I make them, I might consider sandwiching them to make “moon pies”. Only change I made to the recipe was I switched up the icing ratios to have a less rich, less sweet, and fluffy icing. I did about 6 oz butter to 3 oz cream cheese
I am thrilled everyone loved these so much! Thanks so much for your comment! 🙂
These cookies are super delicious made them for my family last week and just couldn’t resist making them again today. Thank you Chelsea.
Yay! I am so happy to hear you guys are enjoying these! Thanks for your comment Tim! 🙂